call me cruel, but heavy spring rain makes me hope some voles drown in their tunnels. And if I just happen to pour a whole bucket or rainwater on the area where I see a few entrance holes, well, purely coincidental

gitagal said:Squirrels have caused a lot of monetary loss at the HD, mostly where the bird seed and suet cakes are stored. This would be a WHOLE aisle outside.
We have to throw out soooo many damaged bags of bird seed (can't sell those!)
as well as gnawed on suet. Seems last year our biggest monetary loss was bird seed. The mice and birds just peck and chew holes in anything and feast on.
They can chew a hole the size of a tennis ball in these hard, plastic buckets
that seed is in--and then just go in and out in these holes and have a feast.

Peanut butter in hav a hart cages will catch to thosse squirrels ever time. Just dump the cage into a tub of water.

We had an exterminator come and dispatch (somehow???) some of the squirrels as many of them were nesting in the walls and corners.
I have seen many a squirrel chomping on edges of the big cardboard boxes in the high up racking. You can see them--trimming the edges of boxes high up in the racking, and then running off to wherever they are making a nest. I have also seen them with mouths-full of shredded (?) bits of plastic.

All the negatives aside--they are hilarious to watch as they run and jump in the high racking (like acrobats) or try to climb the tall steel poles. They cannot--as it is smooth metal- and they come sliding back down. Funnny!

Anyway--they are very destructive and cause 1000's of $$ in loss.
I hate squrrels by now. G.

Yardenman said:

Oops.

LOL picturing jittery, caffeinated slugs!

Too bad HD can't sell the bird seed -- or donate it somewhere. It may be better for them (financially, not morally) to take the loss (tax write-off? insurance?) rather than selling it at a discount. Our local HD & Lowe's keep the seed and suet inside, and i haven't seen much evidence of critter damage there.

Beautiful day here... lots of birds calling out back (I can hear a crow, a cardinal, and some clear call I'm unsure of) as well as visiting the deck for seed.

Juncos are still here. I'm not sure when they'll migrate, but I know I'll miss them! Sweet little things, with their pink feet.

Back in the middle of March I noticed that our resident pair of Carolina Wrens had commandeered a container I had compost stored in.

A lot of debris had been moved inside and made into a nest:

I checked it every day, but nothing seemed to be happening. Many songbirds will build a nest and then wait for warm weather before laying eggs so their young will have the insects they need. Last Saturday the first egg appeared, then another on Sunday, and one more on Monday. These birds do not sit on the nest until all their eggs are laid, so when I found mama on the nest today I presume she has stopped with a clutch of four. She is very used to us and did not seem bothered by her photo op:

Charming snaps, David.

I have seen red foxes several times lately. They are probably living nearby. I had a fox family under my shed last year and was hoping that they would return this year. Unfortunately today a fox almost caught one of our neighbor's cats, which has quite changed my mind.

At around 8 o'clock this morning, the cat was sitting on the steps right outside my back door. A fox came down the back lawn to chase the cat across the patio. The cat went up a tree, and the fox left only when my husband went out.

The cat was then way up in the tree on a pretty thin branch. Having a hard time coming down, she was just crying. I wasn't home to help but my hubby managed to get up the tree on a ladder and got the cat down. The poor cat must have use 8 lives today.

aw David, she's sweet. I just started hearing the house wren with that long loud song he does.

such drama, Donner. Glad you didn't see bloodshed!

Donnerville said:I have seen red foxes several times lately. They are probably living nearby. I had a fox family under my shed last year and was hoping that they would return this year. Unfortunately today a fox almost caught one of our neighbor's cats, which has quite changed my mind.

At around 8 o'clock this morning, the cat was sitting on the steps right outside my back door. A fox came down the back lawn to chase the cat across the patio. The cat went up a tree, and the fox left only when my husband went out.

The cat was then way up in the tree on a pretty thin branch. Having a hard time coming down, she was just crying. I wasn't home to help but my hubby managed to get up the tree on a ladder and got the cat down. The poor cat must have use 8 lives today.

Helping a cat out of a tree earns you points. MOL!

We often have carolina or house wrens nesting in potted plants... so far I haven't seen eggs laid this year.

The robins gave up their prime real estate on the front porch (I think their nest was robbed by crows last year after the 3rd set of chicks hatched), and there has been a lot of wrangling and discussion between varuious contenders for the spot! No clear winners yet.

What a sweet photo, greenthumb!

Donner, perhaps if you tell the cat's owners what happened, they'll be smart enough to keep the cat inside from now on! Or maybe the cat will be smart enough to stay out of your yard.
What your husband did was above and beyond the call of neighborly relations. Good for him!

It happened again, if you can believe it!

Hubby heard cat's crying late evening yesterday, and thought a cat had been shut inside somewhere. He looked up and down in the house and then in the garage without finding the cat. He got a flashlight to look around the house, and was stared down by a very big fox on the back lawn! He said the fox was as big as a Collie. The fox didn't budge even when the flashlight was shone on his face. Again, the cat was up in the tree, crying. After shooing off the fox, hubby got up the tree on a ladder to rescue the cat. It was quite a struggle with the ladder, a flashlight, and the cat. It is a thorny Honey Locust tree. Hubby said he wasn't sure if the scratches on his hands and arms were from the tree or the cat.

That wasn't the end of the story because the neighbor's family is on vacation and there are two cats. Hubby found the second cat and kept both in the garage. Then he went to Safeway to buy cat litter so that the cats could use them inside the garage over night. The cats are always kept in the neighbor's garage at night, even in the middle of the winter, which is not what we would do. However, we are not sure of what type/frequency of flea treatment the cats receive and cannot bring them inside for fear of getting ticks on me. Lyme disease is the last thing I need at the moment, or the last thing anybody needs at any time.

Now we are really worried. It seems that our backyard has become the fox's hunting ground. The cats are outside all the time. They may not be so lucky next time...

As @Muddy1 suggested, we must tell the neighbors when they come back.

Jamie has a Wren that comes back year after year. This year he thinks it moved down to his new house. It set up a nest in Deb's new MC helmet that was hanging in the garage over winter. They waited till she left and very gently moved the whole nest out of the new helmet and into and old one. Hung back up in the same spot. Luckily no eggs at the time. When she came back in she settled into the nest with out a hitch.

Cute David. We usually have a wren in our front lamppost. The light fixture became loose enough for her to get in and there she has stayed. I think we have another wren nesting in the back closed eave of the potting shed, which they have used before. Too soon it will be bug season but that also means baby bird season.

Yep lots of babies. Thought this was worth sharing
https://www.facebook.com/BuzzP...

Oh no Donner. I'm all for letting the wildlife inhabit where they may, but it may be worth a think to see if one of those wildlife rescue places can relocate it somewhere else. It sounds glorious, but if it is now going after the neighborhood cats...

One thing to keep in mind is that the fox is more effective in controlling mice and voles than the neighborhood cats. Small rodents are a major part of a fox's diet, for non-feral cats, catching them is mainly entertainment.

I don't know about Maryland, but Fairfax County doesn't capture foxes unless they appear to be ill or injured. If the neighbors don't start keeping the cats inside, sooner or later they'll become fox food. It sounds like the neighbors don't particularly care about their cats anyway; they're so lucky to have neighbors like you and your husband, Donner!

A male Robin has been attacking our dinning room window for about 4 1/2 hours straight. He flies up and hits the window every 5 to 10 seconds, apparently trying to drive off his reflection he perceives as another male Robin in his territory. He has been doing this for about 4 days now, waking me up bright and early with the incessant, loud banging. If he has a nest nearby he hopefully will cease his thoroughly annoying behavior and assist in feeding his brood, else they will starve.

@greenthumb99 Hope the Robin didn't get concussion from all that hitting.

The neighbor family is still on vacation. Their cats have been spending nights in my garage since the incidents with the fox. Yesterday the cats chased a big groundhog off the lawn and under the shed. He (she?) probably is living there now, using my garden as a salad bar.