Who's Pooping on the Porch?

We've been finding little turds like this on our porch for the past few weeks.  They are about an inch or so long, and they appear to be made up almost entirely of bug carcasses.

These are being left behind by an animal who must visit our porch quite regularly.  What poops like this and has a diet rich in bugs?  Internet search suggested that it may be skunk.  In an attempt to catch the critter in the act, I trained my game camera on the porch and steps and waited.  Each morning, we had more poop on the porch and no photos on the camera.

Poop by my shoe?

Debris and bug parts IN my shoe?

Here's the little pooper!

And here he is with his roommate.

We have known for a while now that these toads had set up housekeeping in my shoe.  It became a running joke, checking my shoe from time to time to see if the toads were still living in there.  It never dawned on us till the other day that they might be the critters who have been leaving all the poop on the porch, too.

Mystery solved.  This has been your nature lesson for the day.  You may now resume your normal routine, secure in the knowledge that you, too, can ID toad poop if the need arises.

Sunday Snapshot: What's Back By the Barn?

For the past week, we have been finding animal parts in an area toward the back of our property behind the barn.  First it was a couple of deer legs, then it was a portion of a large dead bird.  Yesterday, it was big chunk of deer hide that resembled a hairy rawhide dog chewy.  

My trusty game camera is the perfect tool to use to identify whatever animal is responsible for this.

Foxes.

This was the area where a mama groundhog dug a burrow and raised a litter of three babies last year.  A fox family appears to have moved into the empty den now and has set up housekeeping.

Having foxes in residence back there should keep the groundhog numbers in check, so we aren't overrun with them like last year.

Looks to me like one of these foxes in the photos is larger than the other(s).  Perhaps it's a parent and kits?  Whatever the situation, they are welcome.  We don't have chickens, and neither do any of our neighbors.  Based on the animal parts outside the den, it looks as if these foxes have mostly been scavenging, not hunting.

I will continue to monitor the area, to see what else may be back there.  I'll let you know if I find something.

It's a beautiful day today ...

Happy Sunday, Everyone!

Sunday Snapshot ... Thinking Like a Groundhog

There has been no action in the groundhog traps since I caught the one a few days ago.  The groundhogs are still out there, but none of them have gone into the trap.

I see one right now ... the brazen little varmint.  It is walking along the furniture in the pavilion, sitting on the chairs, and perching on the railing like a cat.

 

Despite what the Havahart people say, cantaloupe isn't doing it for these groundhogs anymore.  After a quick trip to the grocery store, I rebaited the traps yesterday evening with green beans and corn-on-the-cob slices.

When at war, it's best to know one's enemy.  I read that groundhogs are active during the day, and they sleep at night.  Knowing this, I have been tripping the traps after sundown to lessen the chance of trapping something undesirable ... good thing, too, because this raccoon came by last night and feasted on the corn outside the trap.

 

 

The raccoon didn't touch the green beans ... I sure hope this isn't an indication of how groundhogs feel about green beans.

I had no idea that trapping these destructive little pests would be so difficult.  Set the traps, monitor the traps so any potential captives won't stay in there too long, trip the traps at night, reset the traps in the morning ..... it's practically a full-time job trying to outsmart these critters. 

Here's hoping that your Sunday will be a good one, and that mine will be fruitful.

Five Random Things

This has been a week filled with lots of different things, so it seems fitting to finish it by participating in Random 5 Friday.

1.  I caught a groundhog shortly after I put out the trap on Wednesday.  I loaded him into the truck, took him a few miles down the road and let him go at an abandoned/dilapidated house.  There are lots of outbuildings and places there where he dig to his heart's content and make a new home.  I think the rest of the groundhogs got the memo about cantaloupe, though, because no one touched it yesterday.  I can hear them now, "Eat that stuff and you disappear, man."

"I smell cantaloupe."

 

 

"Oh, crap, I can't get this thing open."

 

"No!  I don't want to go for a ride."

 

"Hey, Lady, you need to wash your truck."

2.  I took my camera out with me early this morning when I went to bait and set the groundhog traps.  Everything was covered with dew, making for some really pretty photo opportunities.

A frosted flower on 'Plain Talk'

 

New leaf on 'Sombrieul'

 

 

Japanese Beetles are still here ... and there were a LOT more of them than in the past few years.

 

3.  I'm working hard to get my new rose garden along the fence behind the greenhouse finished.  The weather has been terribly uncooperative, with hot temps and stifling humidity ... so I worked in short shifts and took lots of water breaks, planting 10 or 12 roses per day.  Yesterday, though, was unseasonably cool and wonderful, and I got a LOT done.  It doesn't look like much yet, but it's going to fill in and be fantastic!  (I'll give you a start-to-finish post about this when I actually get to the 'finished' part of the process.)

I'm being a good girl and finishing each rose completely before I move on to the next one.

See how they are all hooked to the irrigation line?

 

That little patio table is shading a small rose so it can acclimate to its new location without getting scalded.

4.  This is where Dorothy spends her mornings ... sitting at the kitchen door watching birds.

5.  As of today, The Husband and I have been married for 33 years!  We met at a college party in December 1979, went on our first date a few weeks later in January 1980, were engaged by mid-March, and four months later we were married.  Three daughters, numerous homes, untold challenges, and we are still crazy for one another. 

Today will be another beautiful day.  The Husband has to work, and I plan to continue planting roses ... at least until lunchtime.  We'll have to see about skipping out and doing something special this evening.  Honestly, it doesn't have to be much because any time I spend with him is special.

Happy Anniversary, Sweetheart ... I love  you!

Shhhh ... Be Vewwy, Vewwy Quiet

I'm hunting groundhogs.

The humane trap is on duty, prepared to do its thing.  I baited it with cantaloupe (which the trap manufacturer says their tests show to be the most irresistible.)  This groundhog ate all the pieces of cantaloupe that led up to the trap, but ignored the ones toward the back of the trap beyond the trip plate. 

I put more cantaloupe out this morning.  Wish me luck ... it's just a matter of time ... and I have the game camera set to capture all the action as it happens.

Sunday Snapshot ... More Wildlife

Moving my game camera to the path overlooking the Rose Field has proven to be less-than-fruitful, as far as capturing photos of four-legged wild creatures is concerned.  It was, however, a great way to document the comings and goings of The Husband and me on Saturday, as we worked to clear out the front left section of our barn (so we can stack the slabs of our oak tree in there, and finally get them out of the front yard).

Bright and early, I walk to the barn to check out the situation and get started ...

 

 

... followed shortly thereafter by The Husband, bringing things in our golf cart.

 

 

 

Here he is, walking back to the garage to get bolt cutters ...

 

 

 

... and walking back to the barn.

 

 

 

Back to the garage again ...

 

 

 

... to get a pitchfork.

 

 

 

One more trip to the garage as we are finishing up ...

 

 

... to get the leafblower and his mask.

 

 

There are no photos of me returning from the barn, because I walked up behind the camera to grab the memory card and take it back to the house.

 

The game camera has been sitting in this spot for a week.  Other than the fox and deer photos that I showed you last week, the camera has captured exactly ONE photo of real wildlife ...

 

 

 

... a cat.  I don't recognize this cat, but it looks like it's definitely a well-fed cat.  I would like to think that he/she is returning from the barn after a successful mousing expedition.  This may really be true, because we only found two mice while we were working, and there were a bunch of old abandoned mouse nests.

 

I plan to move the camera to another spot later this morning.

 

Have a great Sunday, Everyone!!

 

(some of you have asked about my game camera.  It is a Bushnell Trophy Cam ... click HERE see it on the Bushnell web site.)

 

This Week Was a Blur

Most of you have probably already figured out that I rarely sit still.  I generally have at least two projects going at once, so I'm used to skipping from thing to thing to thing.  This week, though, I had WAY too many things lined up to do. 

My rose propagation exhibit at yesterday's Culpeper flower show was a big hit.  There weren't enough people there at any given time for me to do any dedicated demonstrations, but I did answer a LOT of questions. 

 

 

What's that I see in the center of the table with the rest of the items in my display?  That would be the award given to the best educational exhibit, scoring 95 points or higher.  I was in total shock when I saw it.  I don't do these things for awards or recognition ... I get my reward when people go home and have success when they try what I teach them.  (It's still really cool to win, though.)

 

 

 

I have two new game camera photos to show you.  In its new spot overlooking part of the Rose Field, I captured two decent photos.  Night #1 had one photo of a deer ... look carefully on the right.

 

 

 

Night #2, the camera captured another image of a fox.

 

 

 

I mentioned that I was out of town from Saturday until Tuesday of last week, helping my brother.  He and his wife are renovating her mother's former house near Abingdon, Virginia. My brother is a VERY talented kitchen installer by trade, and he gets to put his considerable talents to work on his own project this time ... updating the place to make it into a comfortable second home.   My part of the renovation will be to paint the cabinets. I'm working on a custom color that I know you're going to love.

 

 

 

What am I doing today?  The weather is beautiful and it's a great day to work on the new rose bed that I'm putting in along the fence behind our garage.

 

 

 

I hope all of you have a great Sunday!!

 

What Happens While the People Are Sleeping

I have been told by more than one person that it's important to be patient when trying to capture photos of wildlife with a game camera.  Just like I promised to do in my last post, I left my camera in place and didn't mess with it at all ... for four whole days!  (This wasn't too difficult to do, since I was out of town during that time ... from Saturday morning until Tuesday night.) 

This morning, I anxiously went to the barn to retrieve the memory card from the camera ... hoping that there had been some action for it to photograph.  I was not disappointed.

Here is a big fat groundhog.  (My camera takes color photos during the day, and infrared B&W photos at night.)

 

 

I got lots of photos of deer over the course of my absence.  Night #1 yielded these ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Night #2 was very fruitful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The camera only captured one photo on Night #3.  (Peek-a-boo!)

 

 

 

No deer on Night #4 ... but I got a pretty decent photo of a fox!

 

 

 

As I was walking to and from the camera, I noticed that some of the roses in one particular section of the Rose Field have been nibbled on by what I assume was deer.  I have the camera trained on that spot and the path that leads to it, so I hope to have evidence of the nibblers by the end of the week.  (Believe me, it's going to be really hard for me to leave the camera alone till then.)