Jackie, I'm glad that you're willing to harbor these creatures who don't have many places to go. Unfortunately most of our property is bare and the watered areas too small. I have multiple water sources for whoever needs it, which includes three feral cats, a few rabbits and two or three ravens. Strangely, we've had no gophers for about the last year. Some creature disturbs the mulch around the roses after I've watered, but since there are almost no snails left I'm not sure what it's eating. I'm glad that you have so much greenery for nourishment and hiding places, and are willing to share. I wish I could provide that for the animals here. All of us can at least provide water. Dying of thirst is not a fate I would wish on any animal.

Ingrid

Jackie, if you haven't seen 'Raccoon Nation' (an episode from PBS' 'Nature' program, see the link below- I think you'll enjoy it.

We try to be critter-friendly, and with quite a few mature oak trees and a pecan tree, we probably couldn't keep 'em away if we tried. I'll admit that I'm not too squirrel-friendly, but my dislike is due to the large quantities of destructive "gray devils" we have- if we just had a few in the yard, the damage they do would probably be within my tolerance levels.

We don't have deer, rabbits or skunks, but possums and raccoons are regular visitors. We have two bird baths that stay filled, and various bird feeders that go up and come down according to who's in town. Just now, the peanut feeders are extremely popular. Also the hummingbird feeder is getting plenty of visits these days. Sparrows, warblers and other winter birds should be back soon.

We have plenty of Carolina anoles, glass lizards, skinks and the occasional ribbon snake. We don't use pesticides, so I'm glad to see these insectivores in the yard.

We also have owls in the neighborhood that come to visit every now and again- I'm guessing they're doing their part to keep the reptile and rodent populations in check.

I haven't seen rats, so I'm guessing the owls, etc. help keep the populations down so that they aren't on my radar. We've had at least one Mississippi Kite in the vicinity to help with that also. Other raptors sometimes visit also.

Here is a link that might be useful: Raccoon Nation

I did see the raccoon episode on Nature - it was fascinating. Occasionally we see the babies in our garden around dusk - they are so cute! One time I walked into our basement, to be greeted by a growling mother raccoon who had 3 babies with her. At that time we had a cat door into our basement, and the babies were all lined up to get out of it. She was guarding the rear of the line from me. She waited until they were all out, and then with a last admonitory growl, joined them.

I forgot to mention, occasionally a small hawk will take a bird in our yard - they seem to prefer the band tailed pigeons (worth their while). Sometimes they pluck it right on the lawn, leaving a pile of feathers. We don't use pesticides either, and I guess we have a healthy food chain, including the predators.

Jackie

Thank you!

Thanks for taking care of the local animals. We do as much as we can as well.

Diane

I don't know how you can host deer within the garden. They wreaked havoc here for a month this summer. Also my dogs cornered a deer and tried to kill it. That was horrible.Then there's the bear. I really don't like that a bear is coming into my garden. I don't mind him eating apples but he's done some trampling and messy pooping. Many animals come to our pond(out of the garden) I'm glad that they have a good source of water there.

Bear! I do not know what we would do if we had a bear coming! Hopefully we will have a normal winter, and your bear will go to hibernate soon.

This morning the rain woke me up! It is still raining. I know it is meaningless unless it keeps up for 5-6 months, but it is amazing how mood elevating it is. I hope it rains up in the mountains where we have a cabin (1 hr from where Lyn lives, and in the same county). The creek that runs on our property (which is very large - the creek, that is - normally 25-30 feet across) is as low as I have ever seen it (I started seeing it in 1972), and it is BLACK. There was a large (6,200+ acres) fire nearby last month, and then it rained, and the soot and ashes from the fire all ran down into the creek. There was at least 5 inches of carbon sitting all over the creek bed - yuck.

Funny - we see way more animals on our property here than we do up there - more fruit trees and other food, I guess. We do see birds flying up the creek - they use it for a highway. And once in a while the osprey who nest several miles up the road will come and fish in the deep part.

Roses - oh, yes, there are little wild roses there. Bloom for about one week in June. Makes me realize what accomplishments the Chinese and people in the Middle East and all over made with even the once blooming roses in the last hundreds of years - they all certainly now bloom for longer than one week! Rambling - sorry.

Jackie

The rain was wonderful. We were so fortunate to see rain in September after such a hard summer. I'm sure all those critters are happy too.

Having lost almost our entire non-citrus fruit crop and most of the vegetable garden to the ground squirrels this year, I am not as wildlife friendly as you are. The deer stay outside the fence so they cannot do much harm. I throw deadfall citrus and rose or grape prunings over the fence for them. I'm really not a fan of feeding wildlife but my heart was moved to pity.

I'm seeing fewer gopher mounds these days. Someone told me that the ground squirrels are pretty fierce and drive them off. That surprises me. I thought the gophers were the fiercer of the two species.

A couple of weeks ago a mountain lion went rogue and attacked a child a couple of miles from my house. The boy recovered fully, and they got the mountain lion, with DNA confirmation that it was the right one. Normally mountain lions, bobcats, and coyotes leave people along. I welcome them, so long as they do. The rattlesnakes I'm not so crazy about. Our dog was bit a couple of years ago. She did recover, but was very sick and it was touch and go. With the drought, they are coming in closer chasing the rodent population.

My wildlife support is limited to planting shrub and tree species that support birds and beneficial insects, and mostly planting them in the ungardened area outside the fence. It was a bare, weedy, steep hillside before I began a couple of years ago, disced yearly for fire abatement as required by law. With enough years and enough rainfall, I hope to transform it. And unfortunately I must now rely on the use of RoundUp to control the weeds until the trees are big enough to do the job for me. That was a difficult decision, but the hill cannot be disced anymore with all the small trees and shrubs.

Ultimately these plants will have to get by on natural rainfall, but I am giving them a couple years of watering to get them started.

We got somewhere between a quarter and a half an inch of rain the other day, cause for celebration.

Rosefolly

I admire you but I am glad I don't have to be particularly critter friendly in the garden. I feed the birds in winter and fill bird baths all year. I do all I can to deter deer in winter with various concoctions. They don't visit in summer when there's enough food in the woods around us and water in the lake. I've stopped using bone and blood meal when planting so as not to attract foxes, much as I admire their beauty. Last March this fox sat for a long time beneath an apple tree enjoying the spring sun.

Water does seem to be the key resource, Jackie. There's a lily pond in our backyard that gets a lot of use.

We have had many of the above in our 1/3-acre lot which abuts a 14-acre parcel with lots of oaks (except for a bear, but have had a mountain lion lounging in the hillside shrubs for a day, foxes and coyotes, and had deer until a deer fence was constructed). Fence lizards have made a comeback since doing trap-neuter-return has reduced the cat population hanging out in the yard from approximately 19 (mostly feral) to 5 (and that would be 3 "effective" cats, actually -- 2 of them are hyper-domesticated and don't catch a thing).

The raccoons and possums make me nuts with their obnoxious ways and I am on a first-name basis with the skunk who digs holes under the fence. With these guys, it's a race to get the cat food in soon after dark, before they get a snack they shouldn't have.

New additions this year are a young stray tomcat, "Tuxedo Tommie" (black and white, of course), who is a charming and very nice fellow, and acorn woodpeckers, who have ventured up here from the local park for the first time since we've lived here.