Thursday, June 5, 2008

The Year of the Critter












Always something different. One of the great things about this compressed space in which we live—the ecology seems to be working in warp time. Every action causes a very quick reaction.

This year seems to be the year of the critter. Cookie, my wife (known also as Carol west of the Mississippi) has put on her trapper hat. She said that it was the last straw when she saw two baby groundhogs swinging on her tomato vine—or what was left of it.

We use live traps and turn the little guys loose at the Judy Burton Nature Preserve. So far we have gathered in two raccoons, one possum, and three groundhogs. With a little luck, the next plant of tomatoes may actually amount to something! Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches do well for the raccoons, while the groundhogs seem to prefer apples in their traps.

Actually trapper C had great luck without traps on the baby groundhogs. She picked one up by the scruff of his neck and landed a second one with the fish net! She was certainly the first human they had seen and they were too eager to get acquainted.