If anyone has wildlife questions, let's put them on a new topic. I would be happy to answer what I can, and find out what I can't answer and post it for you. Please include your exact location, and photos if there are questions about anything from the animals themselves to their tracks in the mud/sand/snow/etc. And remember, Gardeners Live Wild Lives!
Wildlife and you...and your gardens...and ponds..
And a handsomer couple I've never seen. Where are they nesting, on your pond?
What is your background with wildlife, morrigan??
16+ (almost 17, actually) years as a licensed Wildlife Rehabilitator, and 48 years of observation, notes, interactions, etc. I have also been a licensed Nuisance Wildlife agent (I only used non-lethal methods for removal and translocation) in the past. I still can do trapping, but prefer that others tend to that while I tend to their well-being and education about them.
Great! So you're still working in the field? Check the end of the previous weather thread - number 25. WC rescued a fallen bird nest. So when you speak about deer deterrence, you have credentials! Any thoughts on other methods - sprays, etc.? I use Liquid Fence and I put down Milorganite and they work okay. Lucky so far this year but I've had more extensive damage in the past - even while using the same products.
That sounds so interesting. We have all kinds of critters around here. The main visitors or I should say lodgers are a bunch of wild turkeys that have settled down here since early spring. Two toms and two hens. Now we have the addition of two chicks. Cute little suckers too. My question is two fold. Do turkeys nest on the ground and when fall comes will they move further south? They roost in the tall oaks just next to my house at night except the mama turkey, so I was wondering how they nest when they have little ones.
ngam, I was just reading different forums and came across this one. I know here in Florida, all the wild turkeys nest on the ground. We have a few that nest in our pasture, so when we spot a nest, we just stay away from it for awhile. Sometimes a Fox or something will find one and eat the eggs. That's always sad.
Your turkey picture is beautiful. I see our wild turkeys all the time, but I never can get a picture of one all fluffed out like that. Good job. : )
~Lucy
Yes, cool pic, Pat.
Here is my wildlife, and I'm not so crazy about him, even though everyone says that Garter Snakes are good for the garden. I still have slugs and mice, so evidently mine is a slacker. Is it wrong that I want to catch and relocate it because it scares the beejesus out of me everytime I stumble across it? Also, am I seeing the same snake, over and over.....or am I likely seeing several different ones? EEEEEEk!
I love ducks! My inlaws have a pair just like that that waddle around their property. Cool turkey pic, too.
Thanks but I had lots of opportunity to get a "all fluffed up" pic cause there are two toms. One is a juvenile, although he is as big as the dominant one now and the elder tom would prance around for hours to impress the ladies and show his stuff. This went on for several weeks.
Noreaster: Yes, your pic is of a Common garter Snake, and No, s/he is likely no slacker. They do not eat mice, unless they happen across a nest of tiny pink baby mice; they are more likely to eat beetles, earthworms, millipedes, juicy plant pests, moths, and just about everything that crawls on the ground. Unless you can identify some particular markings on the "one" you see, you are likely seeing more than one. They are great to have around the garden! Garters and Eastern Ribbon Snakes who are also often referred to as Garter Snakes, are very common. In the winter, they use a "hibernaculum", into which the whole group of residents move to, the save their already tuned-down energy load, and to use each other for what little heat an ectotherm can manage. You are very lucky to have them! We have a g-zillion of them here, and I hold very interesting conversations with them. Believe me, you may be freaked out by them, but they are more freaked out by you! To them, you are Gulliver! Also, on the yuck factor, when you pick them up, they tend to release a musk which is quite potent, very liquid-y, and a scent that is very hard to remove. I would just say "Oh hi, it's you again" next time one comes around and enjoy their quiet serenity. When they are out in the sun, as an ectotherm, they are soaking up all the heat they can because they create little if any of their own.
Gonna be great having you around, morrigan! Thank you.
Almost forgot about the turkeys! Sorry. The younger male may well disperse in a while, before or after challenging the older tom. He might even take one of the gals with him, although it is likely he will wander to find his own harem. As for the nesting, they nest on the ground, sometimes carving out a shallow depression filled with some dead leaves. They will do a distraction display (the females) if one is approaching too close to the nest. The eggs are beige to white with brown blotches. They will roost in the trees, yes. And they are winter residents, they might move to a locally different area for winter, but they do not migrate.
Also, Noreaster, I forgot to add things such as small salamanders and the like, pill-bugs and such, to the snakes' diets.
You bet, Victor. Thanks for the compliment. BTW, sometimes the deer will also be in or out of your garden depending upon how the forage for the winter was, if it was good and they went into the summer with their bellies pretty full, and there is good forage in the summer for nursing does, they will likely have less interest in your garden. Unless you are offering haute cuisine in your plantings, that is. Now, if you could grow ice cream, I would foraging in your gardens! Whew, it hot as Hades here today. BTW you got me taking cloud pics yesterday. i just have to get them uploaded and then I will post.
Oh, and noreaster, the turkeys will also eat a variety of nasty garden bugs, small salamanders, teenytoads and such, so they are generally good to have around. Their droppings, which usually concentrate under their roosting tree, can be scooped up (use a face mask for dried droppings) and are a high-nitrogen addition to your compost!
Never saw a skinny deer yet.
It's interesting you talk about the snake musk, morrigan, because I've noticed my dogs reacting with aversion to a few areas in the yard....makes me wonder if the snake has passed thru there. They had an encounter with one and I think my dogs were as disturbed as I was by the presence of the snake. Well I know they eat toads, because I had the misfortune to witness that already. If I have so many snakes and toads, why are my hosta not flawless, is what I want to know! :)
Plenty of turkeys around here, too, but not in my fenced yard.
NE: Perhaps you need yet ANOTHER type of wild crawly creepy to help with what's wrong with your hosta!?
VG: No, no skinny deer up here so far, but I have only been in the mid-Hudson Valley since last Oct. Down on LI where I came from, there were plenty. My rule of thumb is always to plant enough to share with my friends :-)) This way nobody gets left out. Anyone who wants to send their slugs and snails over my way, feel free. I like their company. They never do enough damage to make me carry around a salt shaker. Blessings and peace - signing off for the night.......
May take a while for them to get there...
LOL Victor, good one.
Thanks for all the info morrigan. I saw the two babies follow mom up into the tree this evening. They all seem to sleep in their own special tree every night.
You have a very wry wit, Victor, or hadn't people told you that? I LOVE it. Yes, I will look for those snails and slugs to arrive in time, maybe for next gardening season!
Hee hee - thanks!
that's my wildlife....lol....
I'll trade you my snake for your turtle, Kassia!
Kassia: That is a Painted Turtle, looks like. Does he inhabit your pond? Noreaster: we are in approx. the same zone, where are you? If you want, I will take your snake, although I think you'd be making a mistake taking him away....you know, Nature abhors a vaccuum.
morrigan, I'm in Maine, so that probably won't work out. Plus, you told me I probably have multiples! I just need to go out and put some bells around their necks or something...it's the element of surprise that freaks me out.
What was the original color, Kass??^_^
Where's his brother, Kass? Equal time for two handsome boys!!
We have a couple hen turkeys with chicks at the moment. They do eat the bugs; but they also take dust baths in among our iris seedlings & wherever we have weeded so I would like them to give us a pass. they spend the winter down in the nearby woods & I certainly wish theywould stay there. We are in NE MA at the base of cape ann.
LOL irisMA. They kept doing that to DH's lawn. He was not pleased. Still has a few bare spots.More now but from lack of rain not turkeys. They don't seem to like the garden, maybe its the mulch, although now that I think of it, they were going in one bed early this spring before the mulch got fluffed, so I put in some stakes to fill the area until the plants filled in. They can do some serious digging in short order with those big feet.
There's also a wildlife gardening and a wildlife forum, so make sure you go there too morrigan.
I get all sorts of stuff -- my house backs to woods and there's a big drop-off. I see all sorts of tracks in the winter snow following the edge, and tracks coming into/out of the yard. I love it. Even the garter snake (cute picture here: http://davesgarden.com/community/journals/si/175451/).
morrigan: I just read all the posts to this thread and would like to complement you on your Interest and and ways of caring for wildlife.
At our little Nature center in NH we have a open door policy for all the local wildlife that frequent our yard and gardens.
We consider them our children and we share with them. Although once in a while we have had to relocate some of them that be came a problem or to many.
The following partial list is of what we have or have had visiting us.
Black Bear, Deer, Fisher, Martin, Skunk, Possium, Raccoon, Red Squirrel, Grey Squirrel, Chipmunk.
Red Tail Hawk, Sharp Shine Hawk, Turkey, Cardinal, Chickadee, Robin, Tit Mouse, Nuthatch, Blue Bunting,
Yellow Finch, Eastern Blue Bird, Towhee, Cat Bird, Cow Bird, Starling, Grackle, Red Wink Black Bird, Blue Jay, Morning Dove, Sparrows, Orioles,Humming Birds, Crows.
Garter Snakes, Black Snake, Turtles, Frogs and Toads,
Moles, Woodchuck, Rabbit, Butterflies.
Plus all the others that right now I Can't Remember or to many to list like bugs, beetles and so on.
For those who seem to have a issue with some of these creatures we have found that its better to find a way to live with them than fight with them.
John
Turkey In a Tree
Morrigan, that is Cocoa... he is totally in love with me... he was "released" last year but came back... so he is my baby forever!!!! the sister is Nestle... and they live in my bedroom... they only go outside in the summer and they sleep inside every night... the perfect children...
I have posted a recent pic of Nestle in one of the other threads...
Last night I was the only human in my bedroom... even Nino slept with me... (so I almost feel off the bed again... Nino and Lilly (my shitzus) kept coming next to me and Nino is the skinniest dog but he has the hottest butt!
this is an old pic of all the 5 turtles... I miss the other boys ... Hershey, Lindt & Cadbury...
Last night mama turkey and the little ones where zipping across the back yard. Snapped a quick pic, not very good I'm afraid, they were moving right along, surprising how fast they are, and it was getting towards the end of the day.
Evie-Beevie: Your snake in the grass is getting ready to shed in that photo! He's a nice big'un, isn't he? Great shot!
ngam: Your shot was terrific, given that they must have been really bookin'! Those babes are the cutest, aren't they? kassia: They are sweet turtles. I have three red-eared sliders (RES) that live in an extra bathtub until we can dig our pond...they are not native here, and all were found dumped on L.I. at different times. Their names are (in order from largest to smallest) Red (yea, real original), Phil (he came with that name from someone who thought they wouldn't grow big if they were kept in a small tank!) and Bart (found very ill, by your truly, on a warm-ish Feb. day).
JWLW: I quite agree. It IS better to learn how to live with them than to fight them. Nature will always fill that vaccum right back up. IE: culling the deer is a allegedly a way to thin dense herds in populated areas. Problem: The following spring, it is likely that the does will have twins and even triplets, because there is a hole, so to speak, in the numbers. I myself have seen this to be completely true. I know, they can't count, but SOMEONE is counting, and, well, there you have it. Like I posted earlier, I always plant enough for all of us to share. Blessings and peace, everyone!
I like the sentiment, morrigan, but there is never enough for the gardener and the deer. They can ravage the entire garden in one morning. I have had this happen more than once. So have many others.
The deer problem is unlike other situations where we moved into an area, forced the animals out of their habitat, etc. The number of deer per square mile in this area is so much higher than it was 100 years ago. We're often responsible for reducing or eliminating species because of our development. In this case it's the opposite - we created this artificially high population that cannot be sustained. Lyme disease, car accidents, etc., are other consequences - not just garden damage. I am an animal lover, but sometimes the best solution is to have fewer.
Victor - You should read Gaia's Garden. The guy made a deer buffet to line his property in the back where the deer were coming from. Then he lined it with stuff deer hate and couldn't get through (can't remember exactly). So the deer are happy but only on the outside of his garden/yard. He said it worked for him. If you want me to look up the specifics, let me know. Maybe you can apply at least some of it to help? Just thinking out loud.
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