Outdoor Critters

[CarolinaKat]

So I live out in the boonies. This means that I will naturally have wildlife interactions and animals wandering around my property and things of that nature. This is all well and good and a normal part of country life. I have a healthy group of barn cats which hunts my property and the surrounding farmland and gets rid of most of the prey animals, so I see very few predatory animals, which is cool with me.

But I do feed the barn cats twice every day, on my back porch. Occasionally I'll see Mr. Raccoon Face, who's a roly-poly raccoon who likes cat food. I strongly suspect he has a more reliable source of pet food that isn't me (such as the people down the road a ways) because he's a pretty good butterball and he only gets to the porch if ALL the cats are off somewhere. Well he goes on his way as soon as he sees me/DH and that's that for several weeks.   

Okay, then there's Scarface. He's a dumb opossum that's had so many run-ins with the cats he has a scar across his face and travelling down his snout an action movie villain would be proud of. He doesn't seem to understand the cats DO.NOT.WANT him there. He's been around a long time. I've watched the cats run him off the porch many times. There's also Baby Scarface, who's a juvenile possum that's too stupid to realize my cats DO.NOT.WANT possums around. I saw the little dumb thing last night, they'd gotten him in the face again. He's going to have some nasty scars if he doesn't learn to stay away, and OFF MY PORCH! There's Also Mr. Possum Face, who I don't see much. He's an adult, and he turns tail and runs as fast as he can whenever he sees a barn cat, or a person for that matter. He seems to be the smart one; doesn't hang around and wait for a confrontation. 

Ok so we've established my barn cats DO NOT LIKE possums. They smack them in the face and run them away. Except Tribble. Tribble is a little possum that showed up a little while back. She was TINY when she showed up. She's allowed to sleep on the porch (in one of the boxes no less!) and eat on the porch with the kitties. None of them run her off, or swat at her, or even try to interfere with her eating. I don't get it.... I really don't. Tribble and Baby Scarface seem to be about the same age, but Tribble is tolerated just as if she was another stray.... I am so freaking confused... 

Anyway Tribble is pretty for a possum, nearly all white. Also she's not disruptive, so whatever. And I'm blaming minnesotapaintlady because she mentioned this might happen with Tribble showed up and she was right

ETA: forgot to add, Please share the crazy wildlife stories!!

[Deleted]

LOL

It's no different than the way barn cats treat strays of their own species.  They'll often run them off and get nasty with them too.  Having been there since she was a "kitten" Tribble is an established member of the clan.

[CarolinaKat]

Mar 11, 2015 9:40:08 GMT -5 @patstab said:

We have wildlife too, back in the field are deer. I also hear coyotes again, the other night really singing, I wonder if they made a kill.

We have had all kinds of geese around this year.  I don't know if they are going north or south or what but there will be flocks in the fields.  We have a power plant lake here and I'm sure the water stays warm so my guess is they are alighting here and then have found the corn, watermelon, and bean fields where they are eating.  In the one field I just saw lots of them sitting out there, I suppose they are migrating.  But I'm wondering if lots of them will end up staying. 

The other night when I let the dog out to potty, I have to stand and wait on him or he runs back in and won't go.  I heard what sounded like a cat, now that was new.  It was way off in the woods or river bottoms. We get rumors of bobcat sightings at times but rather rare.  I'm wondering if that is what it was.  We have less people out here and the power plant is buying up all the farmland around.  They won't let people hunt or trespass on it so I'm guessing we will have more and more wild animals around. Their land surrounds our house so we never have to worry about having neighbors, also across the road. That part only bothers me because I have nowhere to go mushroom hunting, drat.

I think howling is their version of having everyone report-in. We have a few deer where I live, but the only trees are really the wind breaks between the farm fields, so most of the deer-type wildlife lives a few miles away near the river. I will very rarely see one.

Where my horse is stabled deer are much more common. Mr. M is not a fan.

[Artemis Windsong]

I am glad Tribble is accepted by the kitties.  This alliance may not last as Tribble gets bigger.  A lot of people told me possums are something to remove from your property mainly because of the diseases they can transmit to other animals.

[Tiny]

I live in a densely populated urban area... 

The possums come and go as do the raccoons.    A couple of years ago we had a Ghost Possum - it appeared to be very white (or a very lite gray?) all over.   It was easily recognizable if it was out in the open AND you could even see it when it was in a shadowy area.  There's plenty of ambient light at night (street lights) and most possums only become 'visible' if they are moving and out in the open.   If they are in people's landscaping they are pretty much invisible.  The Ghost Possum was visible even when in the bushes/flowers of people's landscaping.    

My neighbor (and I) put out bird seed - we have quite a flock of sparrows, Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal, several couples of Mourning doves (Fred and Willma, Ricky and Lucy, Ralph and Alice, and Norton and Trixie), and last spring a BlueJay showed Up! (the jays and crows were decimated by West Nile virus)  and then an assortment of other migratory birds that come and go.   When the bird feeders first went up all was fine -  and then we started noticing the occassional "exploded" bird remains and exploded squirrel and bunny remains in our yards... and then we spotted the Cooper's Hawk.    My neighbor and I now coordinate our 'bird feeding' so the feeders are empty for a  handful of days at a time.  The Hawk(s) still comes by but it's not a daily "buffet" for it.  We think maybe the Cooper's Hawks started a family in one of the huge Blue Spruces down the block from our bird feeders - the year we created a "buffet" for them.     We've also had a Red Tail hawk show up... 

Last summer  we had a skunk.   I never saw it - but my neighbors did.  We smelled it quite a few times last summer.

We had some warmer days - and last night when my sensor lite on my garage came on, something was making it's way across the snow pack at the back of my yard.    It wasn't a possum or a raccoon - I think it might have been the Skunk.

I know there are coyotes and occassionally a fox - I've seen their prints in the snow or mud in the alley.   I've only seen one coyote and he was a raggedy mangy animal out on the sidewalk well into daylight with alot of traffic and walkers. Not good.     Not sure if animal control got him or if he just expired on his own.    

[ArchietheDragon]

These skunks in my neck of the woods don't like obama.

FAIRFIELD, Conn. (CBSNewYork/AP) – Police in Fairfield, Connecticut, are investigating the discovery of two dead skunks with a sign reading “Obama Stinks.”

newyork.cbslocal.com/2015/03/10/2-dead-skunks-found-with-obama-stinks-sign-in-fairfield-conn/

[Tiny]

Meant to add.   Opossums are scary but I'm OK with them (they aren't very aggressive) and generally, if you give them a bit of time, they move along on their business.   I view them as Nature's Little Garbage Men.   The Raccoons are more scary to me - they tend to 'hold their ground' when confronted or suprised - I've also had some come towards me!  Like the time I surprised one in my side yard - i'm not sure if it thought I was gonna feed it (like the squirrell - some of them are quite cheeky and I think people hand feed them! I DO NOT!) or if it was gonna go all "Killer Raccoon" on me.

For the most part I'm ok with sharing my yard and the streets with the Wild Life.   As long as they don't move into my garage or house I'm good.
 

[Deleted]

I really miss having a dog.  She kept all the undesirables away, but now a little over a year since she passed, they are starting to figure out it's safe here again.  They're not too bad yet, but it's increasing.  The rabbits have really gone crazy and I'm starting to see the occasional coon and possum.  The deer and coyotes are pretty thick, but I don't care about them so much.  Unless the coyotes get brave enough to steal chickens.

I'm down to one full-time barn cat too.  Not sure what happened to his brother and his sister is always hunting for weeks on end.  As far as rodents go, I'm pretty sure the bald eagles get more mice and stuff around here than they do.  Yesterday there were 6 of them just walking around in my hayfield.  I thought they were turkeys at first.

[Deleted]

My Dad was driving along and noticed a dead possum on the side of the road was crawling with babies and took them all home and raised them up.  They had barn possums.  Not cats.  LOL    Possums are ugly, but the babies are awfully darn cute.

[weltschmerz]

I live in the middle of a big city and have all kinds of wildlife visiting me. I feed everybody. My parents lived through a famine and I was taught to not waste food....don't throw anything out if there's something out there that is hungry. They had a huge problem with hunger.

The raccoons come in the spring to show me their their kittens. I'm not allowed to touch them, but they're allowed to touch me. They climb up my legs and taste my skin.

The skunks are a friendly bunch. Sometimes I see the feral cats eating out of the same dish with them.

A skunk doesn't like to spray; they will usually warn you first by slapping their front paws against the ground. I never had a problem with them. They're adorable.

[weltschmerz]

Up at the cottage, we have bears, wolves, deer, you name it. Never feed a bear.

A Fed Bear Is A Dead Bear.

[wyouser]

We do live in town, but in a county where people are outnumbered by deer 22,000 to 7500. One learns in the spring through fall, always check the air before letting the dog in or out. (skunks) Wild turkeys are plentiful (and fun to watch in mid winter when they invade the crabapple trees which by then are full of fully fermented crabapples) Our cats probably wish we had more barns as we are visited at night by a much much much larger variety of "puddy Tats" who consider tabby or small dogs for that matter, to be a "lite" snack. The forest service guys tell me the wolves are back (for around 5-6 years) but I've not seen or heard one...yet. We remember the story told when they were reintroduced into Yellowstone...."they will never migrate out of the park"  Interesting...as the eastern boundary of Yellowstone Park is 500 miles and a 13000ft mountain range west of here.

[milee]

Mar 11, 2015 15:26:49 GMT -5 wyouser said:

We do live in town, but in a county where people are outnumbered by deer 22,000 to 7500.

WSJ had a very interesting article about how deer overpopulation was permanently changing the landscape. From the deer changing all the plant life by eating it below a certain height (meaning no more plants that are shorter, only taller trees and almost impossible to regrow new if an old tree dies or is burned) to causing large numbers of car accidents. IIRC, they mentioned that North America has more deer now than it did 100 years ago.

I don't understand why we don't change some of the restrictions to let people eat some of these extra deer. Deer is yummy and if they're running around free and there are too many of them, seems like the ultimate in locavore eating.

[lexxy703]

Mar 11, 2015 15:31:20 GMT -5 milee said:

Mar 11, 2015 15:26:49 GMT -5 wyouser said:

We do live in town, but in a county where people are outnumbered by deer 22,000 to 7500.

WSJ had a very interesting article about how deer overpopulation was permanently changing the landscape. From the deer changing all the plant life by eating it below a certain height (meaning no more plants that are shorter, only taller trees and almost impossible to regrow new if an old tree dies or is burned) to causing large numbers of car accidents. IIRC, they mentioned that North America has more deer now than it did 100 years ago.

I don't understand why we don't change some of the restrictions to let people eat some of these extra deer. Deer is yummy and if they're running around free and there are too many of them, seems like the ultimate in locavore eating.

They have changed the laws where I live little by little every year. They have increased limits, lengthened the season, have planned hunts on farms to clear them out because they are ruining crops. There are even groups that are sanctioned to hunt for the soup kitchens/shelters. I'm not a hunter so I don't know the particulars, just what I have picked up from people who do hunt.

[wyouser]

Really not an overpopulation issue here. This county is 1/3 larger than the state of Rhode Island but the human spread is a bit over 2 per square mile.( not much higher for the deer) Several hundred just live in town year round..It is illegal to discharge a gun inside the city (except for self defense) so they have figured it out ..its safer in town and those humans grow pretty nifty stuff around their houses in town. (when they tell you deer won't eat marigolds...don't buy it)

[swamp]

There was a family of foxes that lived under the shed next door. Foxes eat cats. I had a cat.   This mother fox apparently liked to fuck with my cat instead of eating her. They would stand in the tree line and scream at each other.  BTW, foxes sound like crying babies.  The cat would then run on the deck, climb on the railing, puff up to twice her size, and scream back at the fox. They would only do this at night. I would go out in my underwear, get the cat, bring her in, and she'd howl to get out so she can tease the fox again.

In addition to the foxes, I have seen raccoons, rabbits, eagles, hawks, skunks, deer, coyote, wild turkeys, and a wolf.    The deer and rabbits think the garden is an all you can eat buffet.

I also have far too many geese that wander out of the river and nap and shit on my lawn.  Whomever came up with the phrase "like shit through a goose" wasn't kidding.   

[weltschmerz]

Mar 11, 2015 16:13:49 GMT -5 swamp said:

There was a family of foxes that lived under the shed next door. Foxes eat cats. I had a cat.   This mother fox apparently liked to fuck with my cat instead of eating her. They would stand in the tree line and scream at each other.  BTW, foxes sound like crying babies.  The cat would then run on the deck, climb on the railing, puff up to twice her size, and scream back at the fox. They would only do this at night. I would go out in my underwear, get the cat, bring her in, and she'd howl to get out so she can tease the fox again.

In addition to the foxes, I have seen raccoons, rabbits, eagles, hawks, skunks, deer, coyote, wild turkeys, and a wolf.    The deer and rabbits think the garden is an all you can eat buffet.

I also have far too many geese that wander out of the river and nap and shit on my lawn.  Whomever came up with the phrase "like shit through a goose" wasn't kidding.   

Foxes love belly rubs. What a cutie!

[swamp]

None of the foxes in my yard will let me get close enough to touch them.

The raccoons, however, are another story.

[Tiny]

Mar 11, 2015 12:44:11 GMT -5 weltschmerz said:

 

The skunks are a friendly bunch. Sometimes I see the feral cats eating out of the same dish with them.

A skunk doesn't like to spray; they will usually warn you first by slapping their front paws against the ground. I never had a problem with them. They're adorable.

I think the skunk problem in my neighborhood  is actually a Dog problem   There's plenty of dogs (in their yards) or out for walks with their people.  I suspect that Skunks just go about their business - regardless of who gets in their way.  And if that someone is agressive towards the skunk...   

Oddly I know the names of most of the dogs on my block and the dogs on walks with their people  but I have no clue as to the names of their people.      I think the Dogs don't understand the warning signs from the Skunk and that's when the unpleasantness happens.   

[violagirl]

With 3 smallish dogs who think they are big dogs, I try to keep an eye out for any wildlife encounters. There are deer and coyotes behind the house. The dogs bark at the deer but the deer dont' come too close. We ony had one fleeting encounter with what I think was a young curious coyote, but he ran off pretty quickly when I used my mean person voice.

We have had one treed raccoon but I got the dogs away as quickly as possible, as long as everybody stays out of everyone else's way we are fine. 

Occasionally a bald eagle flies over, I've been told they couldn't pick up dogs the size of mine, but they are small enough that I am uneasy. What if the eagle doesn't know he can't lift them? They like to run and bark at it. 

[weltschmerz]

Mar 11, 2015 16:54:56 GMT -5 Tiny said:

Mar 11, 2015 12:44:11 GMT -5 weltschmerz said:

 

The skunks are a friendly bunch. Sometimes I see the feral cats eating out of the same dish with them.

A skunk doesn't like to spray; they will usually warn you first by slapping their front paws against the ground. I never had a problem with them. They're adorable.

I think the skunk problem in my neighborhood  is actually a Dog problem   There's plenty of dogs (in their yards) or out for walks with their people.  I suspect that Skunks just go about their business - regardless of who gets in their way.  And if that someone is agressive towards the skunk...   

Oddly I know the names of most of the dogs on my block and the dogs on walks with their people  but I have no clue as to the names of their people.      I think the Dogs don't understand the warning signs from the Skunk and that's when the unpleasantness happens.   

Exactly! Skunks just want to be left alone to go about their business. 

When I had my pit bull rescue, those dogs listened to everything I said, except "Leave the skunks alone!!" Yeah, they got nailed a few times, but never learned. It's like they couldn't help themselves.

[973beachbum]

Where I live now we mostly have the usual outdoor animals.  Squirrels, raccoons, and possums are the most common land animals.  We have tons of birds including hawks and turkey vultures.  The land animals don't do much damage and mostly stay away from cats and dogs but those birds will seriously kill anything that is small enough and doesn't look able to defend themself!!  Kittens and older/hurt cats are goners out in the open.

From time to time I see foxes and coyotes.   The foxes were a surprise the first time I saw one.  It was on our front yard really early in the morning.  It wasn't even light out yet and at first I thought it was a cat.  then as I walked out I realized it wasn't moving away from me and didn't look quite right.  As soon as I realized it was a fox I backed into the house and turned on all the outside lights.  It was gone probably before I did that but it made me feel better.

We also have had coyotes in the area recently.  Or at least there are enough of them that I am now noticing them.  One was by my garbage can when I came home one night.  It was the strangest looking cross between a cat and a german shephard I had ever seen!  It looked all black too so I really thought it was some weird dog or huge cat that got loose.  It ran away before I stopped so I only found out what it was when I told DH what I had seen.  He knew what it was immediately.  I had never heard of a coyote in Nj let alone an all black one so it was quite a surprise!

Where we used to live in No NJ we had black bears.  They actually didn't normally do much damage or harm anyone.  They just walked around looking for food.  We made very sure never to have anything edible left outside so didn't have any problems other than having to really watch when we came home.  When we first moved there we didn't have any outside motion lights.  DH cam home one night and didn't see the bear asleep on the lawn.  He tripped over it walking across the lawn.   He hit it with his foot as he was walking and tripped right over the top of it.  He was younger then so he just got up fast and ran to the door and came inside.  His pants were a little ripped but other than that no one, bear or person, was hurt.

That bear liked to sleep in our front lawn.  He actually normally snored when he slept so we could hear him long before we would see him.  We got so we could identify the regulars by sight.  The one that slept in our yard we nicknamed Bob.

[msventoux]

Bears of various types, moose, fox, wolves, coyotes, lynx, eagles, and the regular squirrels, birds, etc. 

Every year a momma moose and one or more babies camp out in my back yard for a couple of months.  (and eat my decorative shrubs).  It's maddening because it freaks the dogs out...the moose totally ignore them.  They also use my car as a salt lick and lick the road salt off of it in the winter.  Poor car has streaky tongue marks all over it a great portion of the winter.

There aren't any raccoons here.  The first one I saw was on vacation.  Something was stuck in a garbage can at a truck stop pullout.  I found a really long tree branch and pried the lid open.  Freaked out when something grabbed the stick and then these little hands emerged from the garbage can and started patting around trying to find out how to get out.    Very cool.  Wouldn't necessarily want to live around them though.

[toomuchreality]

Wow! It seems crazy to me, that so many of you live in areas where there is still so much wild life.  Where I live, wild life consists of a small dog on a leash once in awhile, a cat or two and my ferret! Oh, and a few birds. Normally sparrows. 

[CarolinaKat]

Mar 11, 2015 12:41:12 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

My Dad was driving along and noticed a dead possum on the side of the road was crawling with babies and took them all home and raised them up.  They had barn possums.  Not cats.  LOL    Possums are ugly, but the babies are awfully darn cute.

Tribble's actually pretty, for a possum. Kind of like Tiny 's ghost possum. She's stark white in the face and chest and very pale gray fading into a white under-coat elsewhere. the gray part looks like marbled cake. Her tail fur (she has it about 1/2 way down, don't know if she'll keep it) is also white. She's always very very clean, even when it's messy out, she's clean. I'm actually surprised my 'hunting' barn cats didn't eat her as a baby, but my 'decorative' barn cats seem to really like her, so maybe that's why.

When I was young, the some of the people who owned the dairy that was part of the farming co-op my grandfather worked in found some gray fox kits that had been abandoned. They bottle raised them and they ended up being very friendly. I think they ended up being donated to a nature center that does animal encounters.

Also the only birds I have around are F^#^ mocking birds. one of them has claimed the tree outside my bedroom window as his territory corner and tells the world about it every freaking morning. I cannot wait for a cat to eat his stubborn little butt. The barn cats keep most other birds away, but when it snowed, I saw all kinds of them show up because all the cats were either on the porch or in the barn loft staying away from the stuff. The ones in the barn were skidding around on the ice when they tried to come up for dinner.

[zibazinski]

We have deer. Which I love to see. What I don't love is what they do to my spring flowers and the snow is starting to melt. Because DH is still in icu and he's not allowed to do it anymore and I'm not home to do it, I called a neighbors sister to spread the Wisconsin poop very soon!! What is it about Wisconsin poop that the deer hate? I'm grateful but would love to know!!

[CarolinaKat]

Mar 12, 2015 10:03:42 GMT -5 zibazinski said:

We have deer. Which I love to see. What I don't love is what they do to my spring flowers and the snow is starting to melt. Because DH is still in icu and he's not allowed to do it anymore and I'm not home to do it, I called a neighbors sister to spread the Wisconsin poop very soon!! What is it about Wisconsin poop that the deer hate? I'm grateful but would love to know!!

What is this?

[zibazinski]

It's called, and this isn't exact, Milorganite?

[ArchietheDragon]

Mar 12, 2015 10:09:59 GMT -5 zibazinski said:

It's called, and this isn't exact, Milorganite?

I put that shit on my lawn. 

[zibazinski]

Yes, it is a fertilizer but the smell repels deer. Repels anyone or anything with a nose. Blech!