Squirrels

One nice sunny morning last week as the sun was rising in a cloudless sky (sunrise started about 5:25 am that day), Land Girl and I were eating breakfast and she noticed all the squirrels in the back yard. We have counted at varied times in the past as many as 12 squirrels in the yard. We have a good number of dogs around us, so we think they tend to congregate in our yard, away from the dog urine, hair or whatever. They run around, up and down trees, and all over the yard. They are a carefree creature, searching for their fall deposited nuts. Our yard has become the place for regular squirrel convention. 

While running around it is like they know the boundary of dog property owners and non-dog property owners, as they go near, but generally not across the dog owner property line. It is like the giant dog in "Sandlot" awaits them. One nearby dog is a golden retriever who is about as gentle and slobbery as a dog can be. Maybe the stay away from the dog slobber. One adjoining dog property owner has a fence, which really does not matter to a squirrel. The squirrels were in a playful mood. We all know what it means when squirrels are in a playful mood--more squirrels.

The interesting thing about that morning, however, is that the wife noticed, as she faced outside while I faced the man door to the garage, was the interplay of shadows. On that morning and time, the sun was at a precise angle to provide a definitive shadow of the tree trunk and limbs by the deck onto the green grass. The sun was not so high as to cast a shadow of the leafed tree,  and not so low as to not make the tree trunk and limbs discernable. At times, due to the wall between her and the tree, Land Girl could not see the squirrels on the tree, but could watch their antics in the angled shadow, as they climbed around, and up and down the tree. It was really quite fascinating as I turned around to view the site. We tried to count the squirrels, of which counted at least six. They move fast, and in a seemingly erratic fashion which makes me wonder if they have the squirrel version of ADHD. They even move faster, and more often than my wife. 

Squirrels give birth typically twice a year--late winter and mid-summer, with gestation lasting about two months. A female squirrel generally births two to four babies, but could be as many as eight. Hence, the timing of the squirrel sex convention in our yard makes some sense, if not providing some practice. 

The nuisance they produce is digging in the garden and flower pots, searching for or digging up their treasured food. In a suburban yard, they likely lack some of the common predators as they have in a natural area, but we do have a fox or two and raccoons roaming around. We also, at times, hear coyotes. After all, we think one of those predators disturbed the duck nest. Interestingly, I was working in my rose bed yesterday and found an egg. It had to have been placed since I took off some and redistributed the remainder of the mulch in the bed, which was about mid-April. We think it is one of Henrietta's eggs. What creature placed it there, I don't know, but I doubt it was a squirrel. How would they transport it? I doubt their mouth is sufficiently large to hold the egg.

Egg in rose bed, among the leaf mulch
 29 May 2024

As much as we don't like the several time a year squirrel conventions in our yard, they do provide, at times, some amusing moments. That is the least they can do for us for hosting the squirrel sex convention.  

The Snake

It was a sunny, relatively warm spring day, with a lawn verdant and lush from April and May showers, I was moseying up our back hill to take a look at the vegetable garden. As I made my way up the hill, I was startled by a snake that was sunning itself on part of the rose bed limestone rock wall. It was a large garter snake.

That large snake sat in the sun along the top edge of the limestone wall, as if a serpentine belt, but its large head and certain body sections giving away its true nature. Given its position on the wall and its serpentine nature, and the fact that part of its long back end (tail?) was still in the wall I estimated it to be over three feet in length. A common garter snake grows to about 34", which, if I am not a few inches off in my estimate, makes this snake rather uncommon. I chose to not try and pick it up to measure. I thought it would be too quick for me. 

Snake, as I first saw it

I was correct in its quickness, as another day as I saw it, it quickly moved away from me. The snake does like to startle people.

About a week after I saw the snake, the wife and I were in different parts of the backyard, she near the south edge of the stone wall, and me at the north edge of the pond. As I was meandering along the area between two flower beds I heard a loud screech from the wife, and I asked her what was wrong. That warm day, she was in bare feet in the yard, and was walking up the hill and came across the snake sitting in the dense grass, and had almost stepped on the snake. I can only imagine what would have occurred if she had stepped on the snake and its head coiled back to stare and hiss at her with its long red tongue catching her ankle or leg. That likely would have been worse than the time I was cleaning up some stuff in a small storage building and a mouse jumped out and ran across my hand and up my arm. With a foot on its sinewy body, the snake may well have felt threatened and bit the wife. I have to think a bite would have produced a greater reaction from Land Girl. 

I suspect that both Land Girl and I belong to the half of the population that, according to audiology.org, feel "anxious" about snakes. I am surprised it is not a greater percentage. Snakes primarily use their long tongue to sense their environment, but they can hear. Although they can hear, it a limited range. That range, however, is said to include the ability to hear a human scream.

Snake, shortly after the wife almost 
stepped on it

The question is, when my wife screamed, did the snake hear her and feel insulted? The snake was hissing after I made my way over to see the situation, or was its hiss and continually sticking its tongue out a way for it to measure current threat level, or stand guard as a way for us to keep our distance?

Of course, just because a snake hears a scream, does it interpret a scream as a reaction to a threat, injury or danger? That audiology report certainly seems to think they understand English, rather than the Harry Potter parsel tongue, as it concludes by saying: "Even if you don’t like them, please don’t insult them, at least not near them."

Snake hissing with tongue out

We have also seen the snake in the butterfly bed, which is the upper part of the rose bed. This means, that when it comes to work in this flower bed, particularly weed it, I have to watch out for the snake sneaking among the dense plants. I suspect the snake lives somewhere in that wall we built over thirty-three years ago. 

The moral of the story is one can be anxious about snakes, but apparently be careful what you say and screech near them. You may just set up a bigger defensive guard. As for me, as I mosey around the yard, particularly near the rose and butterfly bed, I keep my eyes on the ground for the snake.

Tick Magnet

As of last week, I have taken on the title tick magnet. A mild winter, I suspect, has only added to the number of ticks now parading around yards, woods and generally in the landscape. This post explains my dilemma of now being a tick magnet.

It was late Monday afternoon last week when I sat down after having been outside checking on the garden and a few of our flower beds. I felt something on my neck and pulled it off, and my first thought was it was some detritus, a flower bud off the flower crab tree, but as I looked at it I noticed it was a tick. I then proceeded to do what I usually do, and that is stab the tick between my finger nails, but the thing was quick and hard to grab after placing him on a finger tip awaiting the stabbing. It took me a few times to get a proper hold on the tick. 

If that was not enough, I usually do not have much difficulty stabbing it with my finger nail, but this time I did. It took a couple attempts to break the hard outer layer. I showed it to the spouse, and said, I had a tick on me, and she commented that it is best if I not crush the tick, so as to better ascertain what type it was. I guess she wants me to show her a live tick, but the thing was so fast, and quick, I could see it dropping onto her. What happened if it got into her thick red hair? I don't think it would ever be found before it embedded itself in her scalp.

After review, but not instant replay, the call was confirmed on the field that it indeed was a tick. The tick had a further trip as it became part of the average of 40 million gallons per day of sewage treated at the Madison Metropolitan Sewerage Treatment Plant. It was a regular wood tick, not the smaller, more dangerous deer ticks that harbor Lyme disease.

Tuesday, was a dreary day, and I worked on our camper in a shed, and saw the grandchild. Wednesday, was a nice day, so I was outside. I was on the deck nearing the end of Bruce Catton's highly regarded work This Hallowed Ground, which I bought at the Friends of the Library book sale in March. Copy righted in 1955, its subtitle "The Story of the Union Side of the Civil War" unmasks the long-term affair of the Lost Cause narrative (myth) in the nation, which started in 1866. That myth was long engaged academics and others, for generations. Anyway, I digress, but as I was reading the book, I look at my left hand and what do I see, but a tick. Another wood tick, which was easier to stab between two finger nails, than the first. That tick, became part of the detritus with the flower bed at the edge of the deck. 

That second tick must have just dropped out of the Locust tree. Years ago, when the kids were at scout camp, the wife and I camped at Buckhorn State Park, and as I was sitting reading and a tick dropped on me. Rather unnerving. A benefit of having a head with thinning hair is that a tick is likely easier to locate if it were to drop on the top of the head. 

The moral of the story is don't become a tick magnet, and, borrowing from "Hill Street Blues", "Be careful out there."

Critter Trials

Spring and summer bring vegetable and flower gardening. My spouse and I both enjoy gardening, but with gardening, come pests and critters. This weekend, saw our first critter trials with potted plants, but I have had trials with the vegetable garden. This is a story of our critter trials.

May 6 Critter crater in raised bed

The critter trials began this spring in the vegetable garden. In fact, the main vegetable garden looked like a war zone, particularly in the area that had late harvest vegetables in which I did not get a chance to plant a rye cover crop, but even the rye cover crop area was not immune from the critter craters. Chipmunks hibernate, and the garden looked cratered most of the winter and early spring, I have to think it is chipmunks digging in the soil to bury or find their treasured nuts. When turning over the soil I found a number of peanut shells, some with, some with out peanuts. A neighbor at the end of the street feeds peanuts to the large black birds, grackles or crow like birds that are very big. They then come to our yard to sit and do whatever, scaring away the nice song birds. Hence, it is not a surprise to find peanuts. 

The war zone look continued after I planted part of my raised bed in early March. I placed a cold frame over much of what I planted, but in the nicer weather I take off the glass covers. Well, it did not take long for the critters to dig up seeds and plants, making the newly planted raised bed the appearance of eastern Ukraine. I use old storm windows, and took the one screen available and covered up part during the day, while covering the other half with glass to keep the critters out. When I planted most of the rest of the raised bed, in April, the same thing started happening.. I had an old wood screen door, which I cut the screen out of and placed over the newly planted area. It is amazing what one can do with the junk one keeps.

May 6, screen garden cover

Keeping the critters out of the planted pots involves more ingenuity than getting a rocket off the ground. This past Saturday we planted some of our flower pots, using a combination of some purchased and some plants started from seed. The plants I start from seed are not as large or hardy as the greenhouse plants. It was in a few hours that the critter, likely chipmunk(s), had dug up some plants in at least three different pots. They were nice enough to set the plant off to the side, but some had very little soil on the roots. We decided to use both red pepper flakes and the wife found that garlic also can be a deterrent. She brought up several cloves of garlic and cut them up and put them in the pots. Once again we were outsmarted as they got to a couple plants. 

With flower pots it is not like you wish to put a cover over them, as it destroys what you wish to view. Covers, can also hamper growth, and if a net type material the plant may well grow into the netting. I have added some blood meal to the container to see if that will help. There are times, experience shows, when there is little or no disturbance and then boom, there is disturbance.

Near 4" deep critter crater in planter
Just beyond red flower
May 7, 2024

Sometimes it can be a never ending battle with the critters, but yet we persevere. I wish they would find their way to the neighbor who feeds the large black birds the peanuts and feast and plant in her pots and garden all the peanuts to their hearts content. 

Henrietta

Over the 30 years of living in our home we have had two mallards come by. Most every year they stick around our backyard for a time, generally swimming in our small decorative pond, eating by the bird feeder, or just lounging. We named them Henry and Henrietta. Several years ago they had a nest in the flower bed by the mailbox, then a racoon got the eggs. This year was different. We saw Henrietta on occasion, but not Henry. This is the story of poor Henrietta.

Henrietta had made a nice nest behind a shrub we planted a few years ago. Over a couple days my wife noticed that she had laid four eggs. The thing is, we never saw Henry with her, or even in the yard this year. We are not sure what happened to him. My wife kept track of Henrietta, viewing her nest a few to several times a day. She was concerned about Henrietta not being regularly present on the nest to incubate the four eggs she had once noticed. The nest was made primarily of leaves we use as mulch in the flower bed in which this shrub is located. At one time she covered the nest with leaves and some of her down. Then a curious thing occurred, She stopped coming to the nest. Three for four days, and still no Henrietta, when checking the nest.

We now wondered what became not only of Henry but Henrietta. One day, our neighbor mentioned seeing a fox in the yard one evening. It was some time after that the Henrietta was a regular no-show. A few days later another neighbor mentioned seeing the remains of what she indicated mallard eggs. A day or so later, after not having seen Henrietta on her nest for a good number of days, my wife gently pulled back the covering and noticed that all but one egg was gone. What ever it was covered its tracks by covering the one remaining egg.

This is not the first time a mallard nest in our yard has been destroyed, one time a nest by the mail box was destroyed. We think it was a racoon that time, as we had evidence of them being around, as we had evidence of the fox.

Mallards lay eggs every couple days this time of year, so perhaps this was a decoy nest. I don't know because I do not know much about mallards. I just hope that Henry and Henrietta were able to produce a few offspring.