A couple of mysterious happenings in our yard have made me pause and realize that my DH and I are not the only creatures enjoying this habitat. In fact, as much as we consider this home, we're really just visitors. Our yard is home to many creatures. Here's a list of some of the animals we've observed in our village yard:
squirrels
chipmunks
moles
rabbits
ground hogs
opossums
skunks
deer
fox
bear (We didn't actually see it, but he left his scat, and neighbors saw it 1/2 mile from us.)
toads
snakes
bees of several kinds
bugs of all kinds
butterflies
and birds, too numerous to list
The first mystery appeared on a pin oak on our back line. Something has damaged the bark; it looks like it has been rubbed off. We suspect the deer family that has been using our yard as their daily trail. I hate to have them kill this tree, so I guess it needs fencing for the winter.
DH gets excited every single time the deer cross our yard; he's just like the dog in the movie "UP". "DEER!" he yells as he runs to a window. This occurs almost daily - sometimes 2 or more times. He's been trying to catch them on his Bird Cam; so far no luck. I'm glad he gets such enjoyment from the deer, but they cause a lot of damage to my flowers, my bushes, our vegetables, but surprisingly not the blueberries.
The second mystery is this hole that appeared on the edge of the back lawn. It looks almost like a woodchuck hole, but I don't think it is. Notice the right side of the photo. Yes, that is honeycomb. It looks like an animal dug these bees from underground. There are 3 big chunks of honeycomb with bees still crawling all over them. I'm pretty sure the bees are yellow jackets. The comb is paper-like. The hole is deep and large - 12 inches in diameter.
Is this the work of a skunk? What kind of bees live underground? Will my DH be yelling "SKUNK" next?
I agree with the deer assessment. It's rutting season, and the boys do love to rub their antlers on the trees. They almost killed one of our Ceanothus last year. A fence or hardware cloth collar around the trunk should help.
ReplyDeleteCan't help on the woodchucks, thankfully we don't have them...but we are up to ears in gophers.
There are many species of ground-nesting native solitary bee species, and some wasp/yellow-jacket species too. Our skunks are often ripping ground nests open here, and that looks like classic skunk damage to me! Your dh might need an extra bird cam to keep up with all your wildlife!