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Wednesday, July 16, 2014

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.