Tag Archives: wildlife

Stomping in the garden with their big cloven feet.

I can’t remember the exact chronology. I caught the deer in the garden at the beginning of June.

I eventually realized they were very destructive to the plants and also getting into the bird feeder.

Poop machines! Three visitors and three piles of pooplets.

I bought some deer repellant, which was successful.

I also bought a motion-controlled sprinkler. I had some trouble setting it up at first.

Pumpkins are for me and my human friends. All other pumpkin eating is VERBOTEN!

Since I set it up, the trail cam is mostly dead. The sprinkler scared everyone off.

And I’m not too broken up about it because it felt like everyone was getting too comfortable out there. I don’t mind a thirsty raccoon or some cute bunnies hopping through. But the skunk under the shed did not seem ideal.

I had the brilliant idea to put the camera out front, curious what I might catch out there.

I caught a leafy branch. 408 clips in one night. I have not tried that again.

Then I got lazy and didn’t put the sprinkler up for a few days and the majestic beasts returned. My tomatoes!

I am setting the sprinkler up every night and moving it around the yard.

Also if you’re keeping track, no more mice. No sign in the house or in the shop for a couple of weeks. Traps are still set.

This is Fat Squirrel. There are actually 2 fat squirrels and the way they’ve been running around here, I bet there are more squirrels on the way soon.

I put peanuts out on that little table for the blue jays and sometimes the blue jays don’t come along or leave one and Fat Squirrel gets his chubby mitts on them.

Sometimes he just sits out there, his little hands folded in front of him, and he looks at the window as if to say: hey lady, bring me some peanuts.

The spool was here when we moved in and we use it to hold our drinks when we sit outside. (There’s a swinging seat out there in the summer.) It’s also proven handy for the trail cam and I can easily move it around.

I think at some point Fat Squirrel found a peanut inside that middle hole (you can see in top photo) but his brain is so small, he thinks the peanuts come from a magical place and he has really ripped up the inside of the spool looking for peanuts.

I cleverly covered that hole so now he’s been trying to get in another way.

Here is our friend Pogo the opossum in happier times.

I came home from work last week and found the bucket tipped over. I dashed out for the camera card, anxious to see who the rascal was and I was greeted with this sad sight.

I don’t know what happened. There were no obvious injuries but also I don’t think an opossum would drag itself to the waterhole and keel over next to it. Part of me is afraid that maybe the raccoons did something to it. But also maybe it was poisoned somewhere in the neighborhood and came to our yard for a nice place to die.

Is that plausible? I don’t know. I felt pretty bad. He was much cuter in person. His fur looked soft and his ears were adorable.

I brought the bucket inside for now. The trailcam is still set up and all the usual characters have been through since then including the other opossum, at least 3 different raccoons, skunky, and bunny: