Wow, daisy! You've got a regular "Wild Kingdom" special going on in your neighborhood, it sounds like. ;)
Walking on the Wild Side
Jsorens, it's true. We're like a mini wildlife preserve around here. Here's what we have: rabbits and woody woodchucks (who love to sit in the pots on my patio mid-day and use their little paws to pull the cherry tomatoes off the stems in broad daylight), squirrels (red and grey and flying), chipmunks, muskrat, deer, wild turkeys, mallard ducks, some kind of mink family thing, foxes, coyotes, that bobcat thing we've only seen once, beaver (one year), trout, tons of birds (including the Baltimore Oriole and pileated woodpecker and a wondrous great blue heron, raccoon, possum, snapping turtles, and, unfortunately, snakes (not too many, but one's enough for me).
The one things I want...chickens...my hubby says no to. His grandmother had a chicken farm, and they scared him to death as a little boy, and here we are, in the sticks and chicken-less.
And the wildest things of all:
Daisy, we had a bobcat along the woodline last year. It has a tail that's about 5" long. Sometimes people see an animal called a fisher and think it's a catamount or mountain lion. We also have the coyotes and foxes, but they don't usually take down the deer, preferring smaller creatures like rabbits and mice. Since wolves are pack animals, they'd be more likely to hunt an animal the size of deer. Coyotes will go after the domestic animals and carrion.
I have seen the sharp shinned hawk chase a squirrel round and around a tree. I was rooting for him! I have also seen what looks like otters, but have never been close enough to identify.
The monk-like thing might be a ferret, they aren't just for households you know.
Fishers do resemble large domisticated cats. I saw one on Beaver Island Michigan, never will forget it.
They also eat domisticated pets.
We have foxes so we keep the cats in at night.
What a moment when you saw the bobcat.WOW
Daisy - you actually garden on all 5 acres?? You can use the 'invisible' plastic deer fencing to protect areas withing your property.
We have packs of coyotes and they HAVE taken a deer down in the field. I have Bald Eagles, Golden Eagle, several differnt types of Hawks, several types of Owls, Red Fox, Moose, Fisher's,...they are almost always black/dark brown and have a very distinctive growl/hiss. I have Mallards and Canadian Geese that stop every year,we have Bobcats and even a Mountain Lion in the area. We had many rabbits but they have pretty much been eliminated this winter by the above mentioned predators. We have woodcocks, pheasant, patridge, and a little mink that I enjoy watching turn from brown to white and back again. LOL We also have the pest...squirrels, chipmunks and skunks. Yup, im a country girl...
I live on 18 acres of land in the State of Maine, I've been blessed!
Wow - did you get more land, Celeste? I don't recall it being that much. Could be my senility.
A few years ago they did a bait and shoot for the deer here in the parks. Were going to use the meat, don't remember why, but turned out it couldn't be used.
Victor, the 5 acres are a combination of lawn and areas of different gardens and borders. There's a small orchard of old apple trees from the past and some low field, too. That invisible plastic deer fencing could work along the perimeter, but that wouldn't stop the herd from trotting down the driveway like they do most nights. We've looked at it six ways to Sunday, and don't see how to do it without ruining the look of the front of the property with one of those over the top gates, with the automatic opener for when you're arriving home in the snow at night, ugh. Wiring and boxes and yuk. Maybe I'll just turn our cupola into a sniper tower and shoot Bambi and his posse some night when they least expect it.
Pixie: My MIL lives over by Fryeburg, and I'm going to be visiting her up there some time this month. Nice place, Maine.
I like your last idea.
Victor ~ senility...I bought the field last fall and with that plus our houseland it amounts to 18 acres now.
Thats why I bought Blue Spruce, 2 Magnolia Tree's , and Mountain Laurel, new Azelea, moved a few Lilac tree's and a Mock Orange around and am now looking at more fruit tree's!
Daisy, have you ever gone to the Fryeburg Fair?? It's huge!! I live about 2 hours North East of Fryeburg. Fryeburg is in an area where ticks are abundant...be careful!!
This message was edited May 4, 2008 10:38 AM
Pixie: Fryeburg Fair is my husband's family's idea of "holy days of obligation!" They talk FF all year long.
Ticks? I didn't think they had Lyme up there. I'll have to alert my MIL. Here in Dutchess County, NY, we areknown to be "ground zero" for Lime Disease infestation. Somehow, I've avoided it , knock wood, (I can't imagine how, either, since I'm outside in flip flops and shorts 10 hours a day in the summer) but most of the people on our road, and my big boy pug has had it and erichulosis (sp?), another tick-borne disease. We almost lost him to the erichulosis 2 summers ago, but with aggressive antibiotic treatment, he pulled through.
This message was edited May 4, 2008 7:51 AM
No worse for the wear, I'd say.
I go hiking above Fryeburg...came down one Mountain with 5 ticks on me and 11 on DH. My GF had 21 and her DH had 7...I've never hiked that Mt. again!!
Nope, he/she looks fine!!
That didn't happen to be Mt. Sabbatus, was it?
Nope, I can't remeber off the top of my head but that doesn't sound familar.
You are so right about Dutchess and Lyme disease! My DH has had it twice - in fact, he was one of the first cases seen at our medical group. The doctor called in his colleagues so they could see the bull's eye rash! I think most every neighbor has had it, but I've also been fortunate. Maybe I just got the fever, but no rash.
Erlichiosis is nasty, too. Ticks are vile things. And I've heard that if you have migratory birds and mice, you have Lyme disease in your area. We're just more aware of it because of being a hot-spot.
Yes, many forget that they're also on rodents. My son had Lyme and the bulls-eye rash. He was treated and is fine.
Thank goodness you were able to catch it in the early stages, Victor! Some people never realize they have it or their doctor doesn't think to run a test and they end up on intravenous antibiotics for weeks. I think it's a blessing to see that rash. The second time my husband got it, the bite was between his toes and the rash wasn't obvious. I feel for those who get bitten on their scalp and don't realize they've had a tick on them.
I know. My neighbor had it and required IV antibiotics for a month. Kids are usually treated successfully since the parents generally look over their entire body while bathing and dressing them, etc.
Tick check! I've already pulled two off myself a couple of weeks ago. Is there any truth to the saying that turkeys and guinea hens eat ticks?
Definitely true about the guinea hens. They even have GH chicks up at the Red Hook Agway right now because people are getting them for that very reason.
My MIL thinks the wild turkeys eat the ticks, too, but that's country wisdom (she was raised on a poultry farm) as opposed to anything I've ever read.
Never heard that. If you get them within 24 hrs, you're okay. They need 24-36 hrs to transmit the disease.
.
Primrose Sue, that is the funniest thing I've seen! Hillbillies and the yuppies around here who buy them from the gourmet store for $14.00 a pound!
Schickenlady: never seen a bee with orange. Can you get a pix? There's a lot of concern about the bumble bee population.
Also: do you own chickens? I want to start raising them for eggs, but hubby says no. He says we'll never be able to travel together again. Hmmmm, we haven't been on a vacation for 3 years...
I saw the yellow/orange/black bumble bee but it has not been back (that I know of). I went to a friends house yesterday and he has Trillium in the back of his yard. Looks the same as the ones I got except the middle of the flower is yellowish. Mine was white - the little finger thingys - pestuals?
I don't own any chickens. If I had any kind of bird it would be Peacocks :-)
NOW - I was in the GH yesterday and I looked out and saw a WOODCHUCK looking at me. GH is probably 50 feet away and the garden is 100 feet away. I walked over to check this dude out and he flew into the side of the bank.
I asked DH what do they eat? He did not know. I can remember someone having a problem with them here last year. Not good........
Woodchucks will eat whatever you have planted in your garden, especially veggie plants.
I have seen the black/orange bumble bees before. I had to look twice because I thought maybe it just had some pollen stuck to itself. Never a camera in sight to capture the strange things.
Woodchucks: auuuuggghhh. We have one who visits our back deck where I typically grow cherry tomatoes in big pots. Sits right in the pots in broad daylight and pulls the toms off the vine with is little claws. If he wasn't so fat and cute, I'd shoot his butt. Not that I have a gun or anything.
Wow, they're brazen, aren't they? Is that how they work - reaching up first before chomping on the wood of plants?? I have seen them around my garden, but don't know what they have helped themselves to.
My friend says they particularly love her Swiss Chard. Had one burrow under a rock ledge to get at hers. Her garden was lined on 3 sides w/ hardware cloth dug 12" down, so they had to go through the rock ledge that formed the 4th side.
Sounds like an apocryphal story but she swears it happened. She is a peacnik, but when it comes to woodchucks, she gets out the .22
All's fair in gardening!
The first year we had a veggie garden I awakened one morning and peeked out the window in time to see the back end of a baby bear waddling off with a small head of cabbage! I thought they were coming out of the woods and was terrified about letting the kids out to play. Over the next few days veggies were disappearing right and left; any and all. Learned where the saying 'hungry as a bear' came from. One day I spotted the waddling critter ambling down the garden path with a tomato and called DH stat! He's a city boy, but being from the North, he recognized the beast. We didn't have groundhogs on Miami Beach, though that one could have used the South Beach Diet for sure. It had made a nice house two levels down the garden embankment. Talk about close to the grocery store!
Next to the deer, rabbits, raccoons and chipmunks (tomato stealers), woodchucks are the bane of every gardener. They used to eat my squash plants down to nubs. My grandmother hated them because their holes would appear in the horse pasture.
After Docgipe's posting of a morel, I went out to look to see if I could find some at the base of a couple of old apple trees we have here. I've never looked before, but bam! 100 feet from back door, I found this. Morel?
Looks like.
Here's another one. Note my flip flop on the bottom of the pix to give you an idea of how big this thing is
