Whose Poop is This, Anyway?

Apparently some critter that gets on our deck railing has been training at the local Dairy Queen.

This squirrel scat is HUGE. (man fist for scale)

There are enough squirrels frequenting our bird (bear, chipmunk, and squirrel) feeders that it's hard to know exactly which one excreted this soft-serve turd, but it very well could have been this one.

Stealing/destroying all of our string lights and eating the bird seed is just the tip of the jerk iceberg with these jerk squirrels.

Bird Feeders are for The Birds!

Just in the last few months the squirrels have discovered the bird feeders. I'm referring to the "regular" squirrels who are trying to be our mortal enemies*, not the flying squirrels who we think are great and are welcome to visit the bird feeders. So, as if that weren't bad enough, Monday night a post-hibernation bear decided to visit the bird feeder, too!  And bend the hook it's hung from to boot!

Please also notice that the before photo has LED string lights, but the after photo does not. *Remember this?

It must have had to get up on the deck to do this, so that's something to think about! It also got into our garbage can and spread some of the contents around, but not too much. Eric was able to pick it up while mostly nekkid in the dark and without his glasses while trying to get Betty back in the house. He'd let her out for mid-night tinkles, but she stayed for the trash frenzy and snuffling around the yard. I did find the wrapper from the pork ribs that Eric barbecued on Saturday out by the vacant chicken coop, though there is no telling if it was the bear or the Betty who drug it out there.

This is our first springtime bear event on the property and has made us decide to try to re-institute bear country best practices, i.e. putting the trash can in the shop instead of by the back door and bringing in the bird feeders at night. I wonder if it's the same bear that "processed" our apples last autumn?

No. No one actually saw the it. In fact, it wasn't until I saw the state of the bird feeder that we became certain there was an interloper at all, let alone a bear.

It's No (Longer A) Mystery

Back in Auguest, Eric noticed a single LED light from our deck sting lights laying on the floor of our deck. Huh. So I looked over the railing and noticed that most of the bulbs were gone and the wires cut. The heck? So I looked around on the ground under the deck railing for the rest, after all it had been windy so maybe the wind eventually wore through the wires. Maybe? But I only found one bulb on the ground. Hmmmmm.

So I took that string down. Whatever was going on wasn't effecting the string that went the length of the overhang above the deck.

Until it did. My guess was squirrels, but Eric wasn't convinced.

Why would squirrels want light bulbs? 'Cuz they're jerks*, maybe?

Then a couple of weeks, just this last Saturday, later I noticed how the pattern of the indentations on the bulb covers looked roughly pine cone-like and mentioned it to Eric. He still was not convinced... until he saw a squirrel running on the fence line with something white in its mouth! It sneaked up into the "attic" of the shop! So I decided to use the photos I'd taken to start writing this post.

Fast forward a couple of days and Eric is calling me to the living room, "Come look at this!" and what are we looking at, but a [cuss word] squirrel running along the railing with a freshly plucked bulb from our string lights! Of course, the whole thing went pretty quickly, and my phone was charging so no photo.

But, WAIT A MINUTE! The very next evening Eric again calls me to come look and this time I grabbed my phone (i.e. camera). But Betty beat me to the door and startled the vandalizing thief off of the deck railing and into a nearby tree. Well, we watched him climb the tree then travel in the canopy through three or four trees, then scamper across the yard towards the fence!

Who does he think he's foolin'? The bulb in its mouth is obvious! 

He then used the fence as a thoroughfare to travel to the forest side of the property and off into the forest!

See that white bit in its mouth? That's our bulb!

He seems to either drop or deposit the bulb out there not too far from the property line, but our quick investigation was unable to find either a stash or a single bulb.

It does seem that there are more of the bushy-tailed rodents this year than in the past, especially the chipmunks, but they are not much bigger than the bulbs. The chipmunks keep the dogs busy hassling them, though. Chipmunks 2, Squirrels -136. Why 2? There are two entertained dogs. Why 136? As of mid-October, there are 14 bulbs left from the two 75-bulb strands.


* In Portland, the squirrels were eating the house! Chewed a dang doorway right through a drawer the built in buffet/china cabinet in the dining room! ACK!