Cheeky Little Bugger

Day 199: Neotamias townsendii contributes a whole new layer of meaning to the word "cheeky." This Townsend's Chipmunk has so far eluded my best efforts to trap him for transport over the river and through the woods to a location far enough away that I know he won't be able to find his way back to my bird feeders. I fight this war every year. My record to date was 18 Douglas Squirrels, half a dozen Townsend's, three or four rats with a Bushy-Tailed Wood Rat thrown in for good measure. The squirrels haven't been too bad the last several years, but that's given Townsend the opportunity to proliferate. And they're cagier than the squirrels, canny about the traps and harder to bait. I can't remember what I discovered they liked best, but although he's chowing down on sunflower seeds in the feeder, he isn't enticed by the ones in the Hav-a-Hart live trap. Peanuts don't work. Nor do granola bars. Ritz crackers? Nope. I wish I'd kept notes.

Townsend Two-fer

Day 300: It goes without saying that I'm probably trying to dip the ocean dry with a teaspoon, but for the past four or five years, I have been steadily relocating squirrels and chipmunks from my yard to habitats where they can't get in nearly as much trouble. That said, I have never caught a "two-fer" before. I don't know who was more surprised, me or my two Townsend captives. They were transported several miles up the road, released into a welcoming forest and when I got home, I had no sooner reset the trap than another one of the cheeky little buggers showed up under the bird feeder. Sigh. You just can't win.

Roosevelt Elk

Day 181: The Roosevelt Elk have been out almost every day for the last two weeks (32 in this morning's count), and as of this writing, they haven't ventured over to my side of the road. For now, they seem to be content to eat the new grass shoots, but sooner or later, they'll get a whiff of the assorted tasty shrubs in my yard and Spring War 2019 hostilities will have begun. I have my slingshot handy, but they generally launch their assaults on the garden under cover of darkness and unless I sleep with one eye open, they'll crop plants right down to the ground. The horse chestnuts survived despite last year's onslaught and I will be putting chicken-wire or plastic mesh over most everything else. Oddly, even plastic bird-netting is effective as a deterrent. Far be it from me to tell them they should floss after (or during!) meals.

Dipping The Ocean Dry

Day 282: I feel like I'm trying to dip the ocean dry with a teaspoon...one with a hole in it. Okay, this guy is a Townsend's Chipmunk, not a Douglas Squirrel like the nine before him, but he is still a wire-gnawing, insulation-shredding rodent, and a free agent at the moment. All up and down the valley (Park included), we are experiencing an invasion of Rodentia on record levels. Our campground hosts and tent-site occupants are reporting mice in enormous numbers, and I've had them in the house where they've never come before to brave the cats in prior years. I have relocated ten "squirrels" (counting Chip's cousin #10) and know that I have at least two more (one each, "chip" and "doogie"), one of which is residing in the wall of my bedroom. It keeps me awake nights, clawing at the wood. The small investment in a Hav-a-Hart trap is paying big dividends, although I'm getting a little tired of driving over the river and up the hill to release the offenders well away from anyone else's home. Cute though they may be, these critters are the stuff of homeowner's nightmares. Go home, you little varmints! You have thousands of acres of open forest right across the road and don't need to move into my house.