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Cat Forum / Cat Anecdotes / July 2006All Creatures Great and Small...
We had been watching the Animal Planet channel's daily Backyard Wildlife Habitat show and said "heck, why not?" So we applied, were accepted, and developed one. I had no idea how much wildlife is out there in our suburban residential area!! We attracted several generations of bunnies, more bird types than we can count, bees and caterpillars, moths and butterflies, squirrels, and chipmunks coming out of our ears (so many I've nearly stepped on some several times). I couldn't imagine myself taking such an interest in the lifestyles of dragonflies and "tiny" creatures - boy, am I learning!! It's been a fun spring and summer, keeping them all supplied with plants they like and plenty of water during our horrendous drought. Our lone pecan tree was attacked by galls that destroyed every nut so I have to keep a squirrel feeder filled with peanuts - this introduced me to a squirrel who comes to our front-yard window every day looking for breakfast and, later, dinner. She gets her own exclusive "service." She's quite friendly. She has a cleft at the top of one of her ears, about a quarter inch down, and we named her "Notch". Ah, yes, we do love all creatures, great and small - especially the small!! Jeanne > We had been watching the Animal Planet channel's daily Backyard > Wildlife Habitat show and said "heck, why not?" So we applied, were > accepted, and developed one. I had no idea how much wildlife is out > there in our suburban residential area!! Sounds lovely! Where I live, it is a bad idea to encourage small wildlife to visit your backyard. Invite prey, and predators will crash the party. I haven't heard of any large predators causing trouble in my neighborhood, but within 15-20 miles are residential areas that have problems with bears and mountain lions. I have a friend who lives in Boulder, near the flatirons, and he said that his neighbors have had mountain lions on their roofs. Not frequently, but it can happen. Bear have supposedly been seen all the way into town, near Boulder Creek, due to the parks next to the creek and therefore the garbage to be found. It occurs to me that Tweed actually has a far more realistic view of the danger in my area than I do. Familiarity breeds contempt, I guess; I haven't seen any of these creatures close up, and no one I know has been attacked, so it's hard for me to see them as an imminent threat. I am sure, though, that they are watching me when I hike or ride my bike in the mountains.  Signaturemonique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca > We had been watching the Animal Planet channel's daily Backyard > Wildlife Habitat show and said "heck, why not?" So we applied, were [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > > Jeanne My parents spent the early years of their retirement trying to keep the squirrels out of their bird feeders. Chasing squirrels off the deck. And buying every squirrel proof bird feeder known to man. Until they finally found a couple of feeders that were in fact squirrel proof. Then they promptly started feeding the squirrels too. Jo > > We had been watching the Animal Planet channel's daily Backyard > > Wildlife Habitat show and said "heck, why not?" So we applied, were [quoted text clipped - 25 lines] > > Jo Heh, too funny! When the cottontail rabbits kept eating our garden, we planted the fencerow with cabbage and broccoli...then cantaloupe for late summer. . We figured the rabbits would be stuffed to the gills by the time they actually made it into the garden, and leave our stuff alone. Sherry > > We had been watching the Animal Planet channel's daily Backyard > > Wildlife Habitat show and said "heck, why not?" So we applied, were [quoted text clipped - 25 lines] > > Jo My daughter and son-in-law have a bird feeder hanging over their balcony. They like to keep the bird seed out there, too. A squirrel kept getting into it, so they put the bird seed in a heavy plastic bucket with a lid. After the squirrel chewed a hole in the lid, they gave up. I've watched Mr. Squirrel jump on top of the bucket and go through the hole to the inside. When he's had his fill, he comes out and goes on his way. I think they enjoy watching that as much as I do. Incidentally, I have a friend on another newsgroup who claims to hate squirrels, except in stew. However, he lives in a drought area, and recently rescued a squirrel that had fallen into his horse's water trough and was in danger of drowning. Joy >>> We had been watching the Animal Planet channel's daily Backyard >>> Wildlife Habitat show and said "heck, why not?" So we applied, were [quoted text clipped - 22 lines] > > Joy I had the same problem with food in the covered plastic bucket *inside* my locked storage room door off the patio. I thought maybe I had mice or a rat getting into my storage room. Then one day I saw an exceptionally large squirrel flatten itself and crawl under the door! By that time there wasn't much left of the food. When I have some extra cash I plan to buy a galvanized steel trash can with the tightest fitting lid I can find and use that for bird seed storage. Jill >>>> We had been watching the Animal Planet channel's daily Backyard >>>> Wildlife Habitat show and said "heck, why not?" So we applied, were [quoted text clipped - 30 lines] >galvanized steel trash can with the tightest fitting lid I can find and use >that for bird seed storage. If you think having a squirrel get after the bird seed is a problem, taka a look at the message "Breakfast the Hard Way", with message-id f8Qrg.1762$Wh7.216@trnddc07, currently in alt.binaries.pictures.animals. It shows a black bear climbing out onto the horizontal rope holding up a bird feeder so that it can grab the feeder and eat the bird seed. SignatureJohn F. Eldredge -- john@jfeldredge.com PGP key available from http://pgp.mit.edu "Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria >>>> We had been watching the Animal Planet channel's daily Backyard >>>> Wildlife Habitat show and said "heck, why not?" So we applied, were [quoted text clipped - 32 lines] > >Jill We use a metal container that popcorn came in. You can find them pretty cheaply in the discount stores. Randy http://www.crmartin.zoomshare.com >>>>> We had been watching the Animal Planet channel's daily Backyard >>>>> Wildlife Habitat show and said "heck, why not?" So we applied, were [quoted text clipped - 36 lines] > >in the discount stores. Lowes, Home Despot etc have the old timey metal trash cans in various sizes, a small one will hold a 50 pound bag of black sunflower seeds. For the squirrel crowd you can get about 20 or so pounds of dry peanuts in one. >Randy > >http://www.crmartin.zoomshare.com fundamentalism, fundamentally wrong. >>>> We had been watching the Animal Planet channel's daily Backyard >>>> Wildlife Habitat show and said "heck, why not?" So we applied, were [quoted text clipped - 32 lines] > >Jill Just a word here on the subject, Saflower seeds. Cardinals love them, more so then black sunflower seeds, tree rats, eer squirrels would almost rather starve then eat saflower seeds. So a good way to keep a few pretty birds around for your cats to ambush, use saflower seed. (pardon, but am tickled to see people in a cat group talking about habitat for small critters given the millions our beloved cats destroy each year - unless of course you never let them out) fundamentalism, fundamentally wrong. What a cute story, Jeanne -- so cool to read about your critter visitors. We have a very mature overgrown backyard and I'm a sucker for feeding anything so we have a family of house mice I feed peanuts to in our rockpile and loads of spoiled birds and hummers and recently I managed to coax a ground squirrel into our yard with peanuts; I love it! Christine > We had been watching the Animal Planet channel's daily Backyard > Wildlife Habitat show and said "heck, why not?" So we applied, were [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > > Jeanne |
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