Mr. Woodchuck, our neighbor who lives in a maze of burrows in our back yard, showed up to eat some apples from our apple tree. Clearly, Mr. Woodchuck is loading up on carbs to get ready for hibernation. Fall will be here soon!
Mr. Woodchuck, our neighbor who lives in a maze of burrows in our back yard, showed up to eat some apples from our apple tree. Clearly, Mr. Woodchuck is loading up on carbs to get ready for hibernation. Fall will be here soon!
They are fun to watch, aren’t they?
Dan, and they’re surprisingly quick. Mr. Woodchuck lives under my neighbor’s yellow tool shed (seen the the background).
Like all bushy-tailed rodents–cute and fun in their natural habitat, not so much when you have a home infestation. About 13 years ago, we discovered several generations of squirrels living in our attic (a previous homeowner had removed the screens on the attic vents and never replaced them; that–coupled with a close-growing tree that provided easy access to the vent–was all the squirrels needed to get in). I could write a book–I see I may already have–about what it takes to remove a family of squirrels from your home once they’ve taken up residence.
Speaking of fall, I saw the first leaves on my lawn yesterday; and there’s a crispness to the air that tells me that autumn is almost here.
Deb, Fall officially arrived here at 4:21 A.M. I missed it because I was fast asleep. We’ve heard stories from friends of bats in their houses (no fun). A bird got into our first house through the furnace. Chasing time bird around the living room and out the front door was a dicey proposition. Animals need to stay Outside the House!
Nice pics of Mr. W. It doesn’t feel like fall here. It will be in the 90s today.
Bill, our weather is warmer than Normal. We’ll be in the 70s today. No rain in sight.
Great pictures, especially the close-up.
We once stayed at The Badger Inn in England on a book buying trip. (I’d have to look it up, but I think it was near Shaftsbury. Or maybe Salisbury. But I digress.) They had badgers come to the rear of the hotel at night and they’d put out food for them (fruit and veg, I believe) and the hotel guests would sit in the dark watching them so as not to spook them. It was actually pretty cool to watch.
Deb, squirrels are evil.
Jeff, every year we see more animals in our back yard: deer, rabbits, squirrels, woodchucks, foxes, raccoon, and skunks. It’s Animal Planet here!
the more we take away natural habitat, the more they have to move in with us. It’s not THEIR fault.
Rick, I don’t know how much wood a woodchuck would chuck, but I do know they eat a lot of our apples!
Oh, weather. We’ve had very Fall-like weather the last few days but are back to a more summery 80 today and tomorrow.
Jeff, that sounds like nice weather for the Pope’s visit.
Who is out there tagging woodchucks in N Tonawanda, and how do they go about it, and why? You did notice the ear tag, right?
Art, the NY State Environmental Conservation Department tracks everything.
Oops, didn’t see that the closeup is a stock photo off the net. Never mind…
Art, I thought an up-close-and-personal photo would help those who don’t have woodchucks living nearby. The top photo is Diane’s.
This brings up the question, where are they “woodchucks” and where are they “groundhogs”? They are evidently woodchucks in western NY, as they were in northern Ohio, in my youth. But they are famously groundhogs in Punxsutawney, PA, east of Pittsburgh. Who among the commenters calls them groundhogs? Bill, you don’t count, according to the distribution map they don’t live in Texas.
Art, they’ve always been called woodchucks around here as you suspected.
Nor do they live here, as far as we can tell, or at least not in our neck of the, uh, woods.
and it also brings up the question how much wood could a woodchuck chuck………
We”d call them groundhogs in NYC too.
Instead of Punxsutawney Phil we have Staten Island Chuck.
Jeff
Really nice pictures!
We only have squirrels in Germany and Hungary – not too many of them are left, so we leave a lot of our walnuts and hazelnuts for them to get through the winter …
Friends of ours had martens under the roof – these make a lot of noise and they also like to chew on some cars cables and tubes, which can be very annoying …
Wolf, we had a neighbor who worked for the Electric Company. He told us that most of the problems with the electrical grid were due to trees falling on the power lines and squirrels chewing on the power lines!
Also–most home insurance policies do not cover electrical fires caused by “wildlife” chewing through wires AND pest control companies cannot exterminate “wildlife” (rats, bring classified as “pests” are eliminatable, but squirrels, classified as “wildlife,” although nothing but rats with bushy tails IMHO, cannot be taken out by an exterminating company).
Just a couple of the fun facts I encountered during my “squirrels in the attic” phase.
Deb, my neighbor the Electrical Grid Guy was vehement on the subject of squirrels. “They give us nothing but headaches,” he complained. “They’re a menace to human society!”
I spent a pleasant half-hour yesterday evening sitting out on the deck, smoking a cigar and watching Mr. Woodchuck/Groundhog chewing weeds in my back yard. But I know what Deb means about home invasions. Last year a skunk moved in under my front porch, and I used mothballs, bleach, ammonia…. finally it seemed that the only thing that worked was pitching my old cigar butts under the porch.
Dan, wildlife can be pests and hard to get rid of. You and Deb have shown us that!