Fox and Woodrat

Summer 2008
Driving home late at night the car headlights picked out a mother fox and three kits (cubs) at the side of the road.  I stopped and backed up so the kits stayed in the light.  One crouched down and disappeared.  The other two gray/tan furry bundles stood there staring at the lights.  The mother, looking disgusted, walked off up the road leaving the kits alone. 

Like their name, fox kits look half kitten and half puppy - totally cute.   I wondered why the mother kept walking.  Was she trying to lead me away or was she just fed up after a long day with the kids?  When I drove up the road, there she was, striding on ahead about a quarter mile away.  Orianne arrived home a little later and saw them reunited, so the kits must have caught up with her.

Next day, I found the honeysuckle I had grown from a cutting and planted out, was eaten off down to the ground.  Like one of those silent movies, I actually did a double-take when I went into the garden and noticed the whole 12” plant was missing.  I knew it was a victim of one of the many chipmunks or ground squirrels we have romping around our deck.  So I set out a “Havahart” live trap baited with peanut butter.

Nothing happened for a couple of days until one night I was wakened by a loud jangling noise.  The trap is three feet long with 1” square mesh - quite heavy; it should not make that much noise with a small animal inside.  When I went out onto the deck, the trap had been move ten feet and a light brown rodent was dead inside, its head stuck through the mesh and half eaten off.  

I put the trap in the shed for the night and next morning examined its contents.  It was definitely not a chipmunk.  The long furry tail and large mouse-like body showed it to be a Bushy-Tailed Woodrat - a pretty looking animal with large ears and soft fur, quite unlike the normal rat.   This is what I think happened: the Woodrat was caught and tried to escape through the mesh; the fox caught its head; the fox then dragged the trap around as it tried to pull the woodrat out. 

My attempts to catch the plant thief had misfired and claimed an innocent victim.  I put the body of the woodrat out on the mountainside so the fox could come later to collect its meal. A couple days passed and I put the trap out again in a different place.  I caught the thief -- a Golden-Mantled Ground Squirrel.  He looks like a larger version of a chipmunk but with a relatively shorter tail and no stripes on the face.  I transported him safely down the mountain and set him free.

Beautiful Colorado

Bull Snakes

Summer 2008
In the last few years, some big Bull Snakes have taken up residence.  According to the nature books, these are actually Gopher Snakes -- but this does not seem a fitting name for such magnificent animals (though I like the idea of them eating our Pocket Gophers). 

Up close, they are about 5 to 6 feet long with bright checkered markings on their back - black, yellow and tan.  The head is small while the body is thicker and powerfully muscled under skin that is silky smooth.  In contrast to their reputation, Bull Snakes are peaceable and quiet. 

A couple of summers ago, I had an intimate encounter with a pair of Bull Snakes.  Marisha aged 10, was playing outside with a friend.  I heard a high pitched scream and came running to find them both transfixed, looking at a mass of writhing, sinuous bodies.  Two snakes had got totally enmeshed and entangled in the black plastic netting I used to protect my lilac bush from deer attack.  The strong thin mesh is exactly the right size to allow the head of the snake through and then trap the larger body, tightening and cutting into the scaly skin.

I fetched a scissors and, somewhat hesitantly, started to carefully cut the multiple strands of netting from around each snake.  It was quite a long job taking about fifteen minutes as I manipulated the long heavy bodies.  Holding an animal, you can feel its nature - the way it responds to human presence.  These snakes were patient and calm, never trying to attack or make my job difficult - and they were certainly not comatose or passive.  They emanated a kind of quiet natural intelligence that knew we were trying to help and not harm.  

The girls stood watching and helping, fascinated by the grace and beauty of these reptiles.  When the first was free, I let them handle it for a few moments and then it slithered off into the grass and down a hole.  The other followed soon after.   All three of us were giddy with excitement and elation. 

It is such an honor to hold and help such beings; without our intervention they would have died a horrible death.  At such moments, we can be proud to be humans with our skillful hands and brain, able to solve an animal’s life and death problem.

Soon after, I got rid of all the black plastic netting I could find around the garden.  Unfortunately, I missed a piece.  Last summer, I found one of the Bull Snakes cut to pieces by its sharp strands.  Human ingenuity is a two edged sword - healing and harming.

Bears and Pack Rat

August 2010
The animals are invading!  Coming down in the morning last week, we found the fridge and freezer open with chewed food on the ground.  A smart bear has learned how to open the sliding glass door and where the food is kept.  Happily, it is a fairly tidy bear.  It was mostly interested in water melon and cheese and even took the cheese bag outside to eat. 

A couple of days later Marisha came down to find it tugging at the locked door handle trying to get it open.  She chased it away.  Recently, I also found it coming through the open door.  Tired of its nonsense, I growled at it and chased it up the mountain, shouting and throwing stones.  It ran fast but I am sure it will be back.

As if that was not enough, a pack rat decided to take up residence in our forced air heating ducts.  All night long it kept me awake banging and scurrying around the ducts.  It was not interested in the food in the live trap.  Eventually, after nearly a week of nightly noises, I caught it using shiny balls of aluminum in the trap.  Now it is safely relocated a few miles down the mountain.

Steller's Jays and Mourning Doves

Early Summer 2008
Each morning I usually awake to the sounds of the “Kak, Kak, Kak” of the Steller’s Jays and the “Coo, Coo, Cooo, Coo” of the Mourning Doves.  The jays have always been here, cocky and brilliant blue with those funny black mohawks on their heads.  They particularly like to steal the sunflower seeds and elderberries in the Fall - you see them hanging upside down on the flowers and branches with their mohawks wobbling as they eat.  

The doves are a recent arrival this year.  They hang out on the dusty dirt road during the day and clatter away as we drive up.  Their call is sadder, but reminiscent of the Wood Pigeons I used to hear as a child waking in my Grandmother’s house, Ffrwdgrech, in Wales.  It evokes in me a timeless sense of the comfort and peace of childhood - lying in bed on a summer morning with no reason to get up and the day expanding in front of me with no demands or schedules.  Wish that it could still be so!

Sacred Ireland

Sheila the Wolf Spider

Summer 2009

We don't have very many spiders at this altitude.  A black widow with black shiny body and red hourglass on her belly lives quietly under the septic cover near the garden. She doesn’t bother us and we don’t bother her; it is a case of mutual respect.  As far as I know, black widows are the only “dangerous” spiders in Colorado.

Last week, Marisha came inside asking about a hole that had appeared in the pathway to the vegetable garden.  I assumed that it was the result of something sticking into the ground.  When I went to look, I found an oval hole, quite deep, about 1 1/4’ in diameter.  It was obviously made by an animal; as we approached, something stirred. 

We got a flashlight and carefully peered in.  About 4” down a line of four tiny electric blue eyes stared back at us. Marisha kept watch and called us when a large spider slowly emerged.  It was hard to tell what it was at first; I assumed it was a tarantula because its body seemed fuzzy.  Looking closer, we could see that the 1 1/2” body was covered with tiny gray baby spiders, all crawling around.  The legs were bunched up but probably each 1” long, thin and hairless. 

I suggested we call the spider “Shelob” after the giant spider in Lord of the Rings.  Marisha said she looked too nice and suggested she be named “Sheila.”  At first I though the spider might be a kind of hairless tarantula that lives in Southern Colorado.  Eventually it became clear that Sheila is a large Wolf Spider.  These dig tunnels and some erect towers around their burrows.  They carry their babies on their backs.

Over the next few days, we visited Sheila and her babies every morning.  She would come out to bask in the sun and let her babies go for a walk.  Any sudden movement or shadow and babies and mother retreated in a flash down their hole.

A few days later we found another spider hole nearby with a fine collection of sticks around its entrance.  The characteristic line of bright blue eyes glinted up at us from the dark.  Marisha called this one “Alex.”

Then there was a violent rainstorm.  Afterward, Alex’s hole was collapsed and Sheila was not in her hole.  All her hundreds of babies were grown to 1/4” across and were wandering around their home.  I just now checked, and they are still there, shooting into the hole when I approach.