Posts Tagged ‘critters’
Unidentified Visitor
While we were away over the weekend, our trail cam captured evidence of a more domestic critter visiting our trail than the wild bunnies and squirrels that have been repeatedly triggering the motion sensor.
Neither of us recognize him from any of our immediate bordering neighbors. I wonder if Delilah has been calling for company or if these canine visitors that seem to keep showing up are just random wanderers who have stumbled upon our property without any agenda.
Since Delilah has been spayed, I assume they are checking out her great personality, and not any other attractions.
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Delilah Again
Delilah stole the show again yesterday. She was a chewing monster in the morning before we went outside. Luckily, what she shredded was a chew toy of her own, so no harm done. I think it is cute that it is common for her to lay her head down on whatever it is she has just torn to bits, to take a little rest. All that destruction must be exhausting.
Later in the day, I let her accompany me, on a leash, for the trip to the barn. I chose to leave her tied up inside while tending to chores in the paddocks. I didn’t have it in me to witness any chasing of horses, and she has not been very trustworthy about behaving appropriately in their presence for the entirety of each visit. When she is good, it is as though she can only hold it for so long, and eventually something gives way and she can’t help but give chase.
What really got me yesterday –and this may be something that you really needed to be there for– was what she did when I finished my barn chores and disconnected the tie line holding her in place. Now I had her by the spring-loaded leash we often use, allowing her to explore, within limits, at her heart’s content. She seemed to have an immediate agenda, and headed for a spot that seemed entirely random to me.
She sniffed and pushed her nose into the apparent nothingness of the dirt, like she so often does. I have watched her appear to be within striking distance of a mole in the dirt so many times, yet come up with absolutely nothing, I hardly glance her way anymore when she starts the routine. Too often, when she starts frantically digging to get after something, she stops and turns to pounce on the sound behind her, which happens to be the dirt she was throwing between her back legs, as it hits the leaves on the ground.
I think she may have attention deficit issues.
Not me. I’m still on track, trying to describe what happened yesterday. So, as I was barely paying attention to her putting her nose to the ground at that unlikely spot, she surprised me by pulling something out of the dirt right there! She is so funny when she gets a critter in her mouth. She gets this expression that looks a bit sheepish, like she is doing something embarrassing. My guess is that she has a sense we might disapprove, which I suppose Cyndie does to a small degree more than I. Delilah also becomes entirely fixated on her “catch” and will take great precautions to maintain possession.
Whatever she pulled out of the ground was so covered with dirt that I couldn’t identify it, but it seemed to be about the size of a mole, and was dangling out of her mouth, swinging as she walked. I couldn’t tell if it was something she just discovered, or if it was something she had previously buried in that spot. I let her lead the way, and we walked out into the warm sunshine bathing the back hill behind our house.
I was more than happy to let her find a spot to lie down and do what comes natural with her little prize. As she licked and licked that dirt blob, I began to recognize the profile of a rabbit ear. I expect it is a remnant of the rabbit she had a couple of weeks ago, and thus, probably something she buried for her future enjoyment.
Critter Controllers
Back in October of last year, when we arrived as new owners of this property and home, we immediately discovered that mice and moles appeared to be all too comfortable here. The mice inspired our energies toward getting a couple of cats as house mates. Mozyr was to be our big mouser, based on his incredibly intelligent and athletic showing-off performance during our visit to the feline rescue shelter.
Pequenita is just a wee little thing, but proved to be quite the go-getter and primary instigator for affection and initiator of conflict.
Neither one of them has left a gift carcass for us, during the time since we brought them home, but we have not seen any evidence of a mouse indoors during that period, either.
They are doing something right for us.
Last fall, the grounds here had an unnerving amount of dirt mounds and trail scars to indicate we had quite an infestation of moles and/or gophers. There are oodles of suggested ways to trap them, poison them, or chase them off. One brilliant method involves eliminating the insects and grub worms under the lawn that the varmints find so appealing. I’m just not up for all of that.
We got a dog.
Up to this point of the summer, we haven’t been seeing any new mounds of dirt, but something is slowly, but surely, tunneling under the grass, leaving a maze of scars in the lawn. I have no idea if Delilah will turn out to be the solution for driving off the moles, but last night, she displayed a fair amount of interest in chasing a scent she picked up when I directed her attention to one of the soft spots trailing across the turf.
Critter Feeders
My sister, Mary, must have been out at my house recently, sometime when I didn’t know about it, because yesterday, she sent me this picture of one of our squirrels:
Generally, Cyndie is the one who fills the bird feeders here, of which there are many. I’m hesitant to do it, because we haven’t squirrel-proofed our feeders enough to successfully save a decent percentage of seed for the birds.
We haven’t raccoon-proofed them either, but I fear that is beyond reasonable to expect.
I haven’t mentioned it here this week, because I have been trying to not be a whiner this time, but Cyndie is out-of-town, again. It’ll have been a week, today. So, I’m starting to get hungry, and the birds are starting to get hungry, and all the other critters are starting to get hungry.
If I’m not eatin’ well, I figure, they shouldn’t either.
As if we needed proof, the recent snowfall has provided ample evidence of the critters beating a path(s) to the feeders. I thought it made pretty humorous pictures.
Dang Critters
I’ve got a lot to learn about mouse-proofing. Yesterday, I discovered that the fresh air intake for our fireplace, outside on the rock structure of our chimney, was again plugged by a nest. I assume it was a mouse’s nest.
The interesting thing about this is that I had cleaned it out last fall, and then put up a screen to barricade access. Or so I thought. I think what I did was make it even more secure for the little critters.
The actual opening to the tube that runs to the fireplace is protected by a wire mesh that is cemented in place. From what I can see, it appears intact. That screen is about 8 inches back in the structure,
about the depth of the stones that form the face of the chimney. That creates a wonderful crater for a nest.
When we bought the place, there was a bunch of insulation, and a lot of chewed acorns stored in there. I cleaned it out and improvised a screened cover to block the entrance to the cave. As I was hauling in some firewood yesterday, I thought I noticed some debris accumulated inside my outer screen. I grabbed a light and discovered it was filled. There were some pieces of insulation in there, but mostly, it appeared to be animal hair. In fact, it looked exactly like the deer hair that was strewn in the area around the carcass the 
coyotes took down in our woods last fall.
Did some critter really haul this from way down the hill in the woods? I don’t know. I also don’t know if the nest-builder was able to sneak around the edge of my barrier, or if there is an internal route that I can’t see, along the blocks on the inside of the stone facade.
I may resort to constructing some form of tube from the inner screen to the edge of the rocks, and then filling the surrounding space with expanding foam. That way the critter will have something to chew on in order to open up another entrance to build his next nest.
At least the fire was looking real good yesterday, with the return of a full dose of fresh air available at the intake again. Since the screen wasn’t keeping the nest-builder out, I didn’t put it back. For the immediate time being, I plan to watch for signs of activity in there, and just clean it out as fast as they try to fill it up.
I’ll know now, to check it right away if I notice the fire seems to be burning slower than usual. Before, I thought it was probably just the wood. Now I know better.
Relative Something 