The official start of Spring is less than a month away but signs are in the air. (Makes sense, of course, since the official start of anything in the natural world is a human construct and means nothing to Mother Nature who keeps a far more subtle calendar.) Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA is responsible each year for saving the lives of and returning to their natural habitats 1,500 or more native wild animals, a great many of those are babies born and somehow separated from mom in the coming months. From that perspective, let’s talk about the coming Season.
Trees on your property need trimming? Whether a DIY-er or hiring a gardener, make sure there are no active nests up there, bird or squirrel. Some species reuse nests year after year, others may “hijack” nests abandoned by someone else, but it’s ok to trim away branches which support empty nests because another nest can be built. An empty nest is one that has nobody coming and going from it; a nest that is not empty needs to be left alone. Thinking about laying down sod? Reconsider! We hear from people wondering who keeps rolling up the sod they just had laid down, and the answer is almost certainly raccoons in search of grubs and worms, tasty morsels found in the moist dirt upon which that sod rests.
Which gets to the question of wildlife you may consider “nuisance.” Can I get you to rethink that negative attitude…? We are fortunate to live in a place which supports a native wildlife population; having grown up in pre-cool Brooklyn where our only wildlife was rats, pigeons and cockroaches (none of them native) I can assure you that trapping and moving wildlife (or worse, trapping and killing) will only leave a space for someone else to occupy. Learn to coexist instead. Make sure the crawlspace under your deck is empty, and then seal it so no one can crawl in. Move wood piles away from the house, stop feeding your pets outside, cinch down the lids of your trash cans with bungie cords in order to discourage wildlife from overwhelming your space, and enjoy the fact that you are not alone!
