Gardening: Critters offer amusement and test patience

With not much to do as we wait for spring, I’ve found myself watching the critters that roam through our yard. We see a lot of different animals and watching their antics have made memorable moments over the years.

Take the raccoons. Several years ago, I was awakened at 2:30 in the morning to the sound of the distinctive thunk, the thunk of a 5-gallon bucket going down concrete steps. I flipped on the outside light to find two raccoons trying to haul off a bucket half full of sunflower seeds. One of them turned tail and headed up a tree. The other one tried playing tough guy and stood up and growled at me from 8 feet away. Realizing I was way bigger than he was, he finally followed his co-conspirator up the tree. The bucket came into the house.

Then there was the September weekend that we had to stay in the house. It was moose mating season and a cow and a bull decided to spend the time chasing each other around the yard. If there is one thing I’ve learned living here is that you don’t mess with moose especially during rutting season. Interfering with romance could get messy.

In the 45 years we’ve lived on our property, we have never been sprayed by skunks. That lived out its truth when in June 2020, I watched a large black blob flow across our lawn to the water bowl we keep out for the critters. It turned out to be a mamma skunk and her six half -grown kits. While mamma got a drink, the kits tumbled around on the patio and dug their noses into everything including a stare-down with the cat through the door. They then retreated to where they came from. Thinking I’d had my skunk adventure for the day, I looked out my office window on the other side of the house to find another mamma and kits cleaning up bird seed. Sometimes it’s good to be ignored.

The deer love hanging out in our yard. We don’t have a dog, so they feel safe. In the winter, I’ll find perfect oval circles where they laid down on soft pine needles and melt the snow. We have at least two does who regularly have fawns in the tall field grass below the house. We may not see the fawns until they are strong enough to follow mom, but we hear the does whistling for them to come feed.

Then there was the squirrel who was smarter and bolder than the rest of the “rats with tails.” He loved feasting on sunflower seeds from a hanging feeder. Mr. Bold learned how to climb the pole and steal what he could. My husband covered the pole with a wide PVC pipe which worked for a while until he learned to jump 4 feet from the wall. This went on until three owls moved in and he and the rest of his cousins became lunch.