Mystery solved

[tevake]

Every since seeing Baz's photo of feeding his squirrl at his place I've thought about sharing the curious interactions going on here at my place with the many squirrels that live here.

There are lots of oak trees on the place so they seem well fed. I do see them munching occasionally on mushrooms. And they have gradually gotten more comfortable with my being in their space, and don't run hastily up the nearest tree when they see me now.

Well a while back mushrooms started showing up on the corner of my deck. Building up eventually to one morning finding five mushrooms left there mostly intact.
I realized that they were trying to make me an offering or gift. Kind of like Baz, but in reverse.

I'd usually just sweep them off the deck or put them in the trash. Then it stopped, haven't had any mushroom treats left for me in a while. I guess they gave up on making me a pet.

Apparently this didn't go over well. Recently the caps on the fence posts out front have suddenly started blowing off of the poles. One here one day, two there on another day.
Well we have been having some strong rain cells coming thru in the afternoons accompanied by strong gusts as they come in. So that was the explanation I had come to, but did wonder why it just started all of a sudden.

Well yesterday afternoon it all became clear when I saw a squirrl running along the top of the fence tossing each cap off the post onto the ground below. It sort of seemed like it stole a glance over at my coach between each cap. I may have heard it chirping gleefully too.

I guess my rejection of the mushrooms didn't go unnoticed, sorry squirrels.

It may be that Im spending too much time on my own out here?

Any one have some pesky critters messing with you in your neighborhoods?

Cheers Richard

[widebody911]

You need to set up a camera to capture this.

That, and therapy.

[masraum]

hahah, hilarious!

on a related note. (there are photos and a video if you follow the link)

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-31604026

Lots of people love the birds in their garden, but it's rare for that affection to be reciprocated. One young girl in Seattle is luckier than most. She feeds the crows in her garden - and they bring her gifts in return.

Eight-year-old Gabi Mann sets a bead storage container on the dining room table, and clicks the lid open. This is her most precious collection.

"You may take a few close looks," she says, "but don't touch." It's a warning she's most likely practised on her younger brother. She laughs after saying it though. She is happy for the audience.

Inside the box are rows of small objects in clear plastic bags. One label reads: "Black table by feeder. 2:30 p.m. 09 Nov 2014." Inside is a broken light bulb. Another bag contains small pieces of brown glass worn smooth by the sea. "Beer coloured glass," as Gabi describes it.

Each item is individually wrapped and categorised. Gabi pulls a black zip out of a labelled bag and holds it up. "We keep it in as good condition as we can," she says, before explaining this object is one of her favourites.

There's a miniature silver ball, a black button, a blue paper clip, a yellow bead, a faded black piece of foam, a blue Lego piece, and the list goes on. Many of them are scuffed and dirty. It is an odd assortment of objects for a little girl to treasure, but to Gabi these things are more valuable than gold.

She didn't gather this collection. Each item was a gift - given to her by crows.

She holds up a pearl coloured heart. It is her most-prized present. "It's showing me how much they love me."

If you want to form a bond with a crow, be consistent in rewarding them
John Marzluff, Prof of wildlife science

Gabi's relationship with the neighbourhood crows began accidentally in 2011. She was four years old, and prone to dropping food. She'd get out of the car, and a chicken nugget would tumble off her lap. A crow would rush in to recover it. Soon, the crows were watching for her, hoping for another bite.

As she got older, she rewarded their attention, by sharing her packed lunch on the way to the bus stop. Her brother joined in. Soon, crows were lining up in the afternoon to greet Gabi's bus, hoping for another feeding session.

Gabi's mother Lisa didn't mind that crows consumed most of the school lunches she packed. "I like that they love the animals and are willing to share," she says, while admitting she never noticed crows until her daughter took an interest in them. "It was a kind of transformation. I never thought about birds."

In 2013, Gabi and Lisa started offering food as a daily ritual, rather than dropping scraps from time to time.

Each morning, they fill the backyard birdbath with fresh water and cover bird-feeder platforms with peanuts. Gabi throws handfuls of dog food into the grass. As they work, crows assemble on the telephone lines, calling loudly to them.

It was after they adopted this routine that the gifts started appearing.

The crows would clear the feeder of peanuts, and leave shiny trinkets on the empty tray; an earring, a hinge, a polished rock. There wasn't a pattern. Gifts showed up sporadically - anything shiny and small enough to fit in a crow's mouth.

One time it was a tiny piece of metal with the word "best" printed on it. "I don't know if they still have the part that says 'friend'," Gabi laughs, amused by the thought of a crow wearing a matching necklace.

When you see Gabi's collection, it's hard not to wish for gift-giving crows of your own.

"If you want to form a bond with a crow, be consistent in rewarding them," advises John Marzluff, professor of wildlife science at the University of Washington. He specialises in birds, particularly crows and ravens.

What food is best? "A few peanuts in the shell," he says. "It's a high-energy food… and it makes noise when you throw it on the ground, so they hear it and they quickly habituate to your routine."

Marzluff, and his colleague Mark Miller, did a study of crows and the people who feed them. They found that crows and people form a very personal relationship. "There's definitely a two-way communication going on there," Marzluff says. "They understand each other's signals."

The birds communicate by how they fly, how close they walk, and where they sit. The human learns their language and the crows learn their feeder's patterns and posture. They start to know and trust each other. Sometimes a crow leaves a gift.

But crow gifts are not guaranteed. "I can't say they always will (give presents)," Marzluff admits, having never received any gifts personally, "but I have seen an awful lot of things crows have brought people."

Not all crows deliver shiny objects either. Sometimes they give the kind of presents "they would give to their mate", says Marzluff. "Courtship feeding, for example. So some people, their presents are dead baby birds that the crow brings in."

Gabi has been given some icky objects. Her mother threw out a rotting crab claw, for example.

Gabi points out a heavily rusted screw she prefers not to touch. It's labelled "Third Favorite." Asking her why an untouchable object is in the favourites, she answers, "You don't' see a crow carrying around a screw that much. Unless it's trying to build its house."

Lisa, Gabi's mom, regularly photographs the crows and charts their behaviour and interactions. Her most amazing gift came just a few weeks ago, when she lost a lens cap in a nearby alley while photographing a bald eagle as it circled over the neighbourhood.

She didn't even have to look for it. It was sitting on the edge of the birdbath.

Had the crows returned it? Lisa logged on to her computer and pulled up their bird-cam. There was the crow she suspected. "You can see it bringing it into the yard. Walks it to the birdbath and actually spends time rinsing this lens cap."

"I'm sure that it was intentional," she smiles. "They watch us all the time. I'm sure they knew I dropped it. I'm sure they decided they wanted to return it."

[pavulon]

Have you read Animal Farm?

[masraum]

Originally Posted by pavulon

Have you read Animal Farm?

No but I saw the movie, John Belushi was hilarious!

[tevake]

Yeah. Therapy. Or maybe group counciling with the squirrels to work this thing out.

Masraum, Cool story about the girl and crows.

Pavilion, I did read Animal farm, way back. May be living it now.
There was a mama fox that settled in under a shed on the place this spring, and birthed a couple of pups here. They stuck around for 5 or 6 weeks. They never talked to me tho.


Cheers Richard

[red-beard]

[tabs]

Originally Posted by tevake

Every since seeing Baz's photo of feeding his squirrl at his place I've thought about sharing the curious interactions going on here at my place with the many squirrels that live here.

There are lots of oak trees on the place so they seem well fed. I do see them munching occasionally on mushrooms. And they have gradually gotten more comfortable with my being in their space, and don't run hastily up the nearest tree when they see me now.

Well a while back mushrooms started showing up on the corner of my deck. Building up eventually to one morning finding five mushrooms left there mostly intact.
I realized that they were trying to make me an offering or gift. Kind of like Baz, but in reverse.

I'd usually just sweep them off the deck or put them in the trash. Then it stopped, haven't had any mushroom treats left for me in a while. I guess they gave up on making me a pet.

Apparently this didn't go over well. Recently the caps on the fence posts out front have suddenly started blowing off of the poles. One here one day, two there on another day.
Well we have been having some strong rain cells coming thru in the afternoons accompanied by strong gusts as they come in. So that was the explanation I had come to, but did wonder why it just started all of a sudden.

Well yesterday afternoon it all became clear when I saw a squirrl running along the top of the fence tossing each cap off the post onto the ground below. It sort of seemed like it stole a glance over at my coach between each cap. I may have heard it chirping gleefully too.

I guess my rejection of the mushrooms didn't go unnoticed, sorry squirrels.

It may be that Im spending too much time on my own out here?

Any one have some pesky critters messing with you in your neighborhoods?

Cheers Richard

Those gifts were homage to you....knocking the post caps off is their way of showing that they are upset. Hurt feelings.

Maybe you should tell them you are sorry that you didn't understand...they will forgive you.

[looneybin]

they are trying to bump you off
mushrooms are poisonous
they want the yard for themselves

[tevake]

You may be right Loonybin.
We do have some trippy mushrooms around here, and I don't mean that as I may have in my yout.








The colorful ones do scare me off, but there is an orange Chantelle variety that is good to eat, just not sure of the ID of what is here.

I had some delicious Lacey wild mushrooms in Oregon, but got them from a vendor at a farmers market. Yummy!

Cheers Richard

[LakeCleElum]

Originally Posted by tevake

Any one have some pesky critters messing with you in your neighborhoods?
Cheers Richard

Great timing Richard - I spent the morning starting to recreate a wiring harness that was a recent buffet for squirrels:

[Baz]

Ha! Great story, Rich!

I wouldn't put it past them!

The other day my resident squirrel came up as usual expecting to get his two peanuts. He usually takes the first one in his mouth right from my hand....and then I toss a second one on the driveway and he rushes over to it to confirm the bonus, runs off to stash the one in his mouth, and returns for the second one.

Well....he had already gotten his quota....and wanted more. I refused and danged if he persisted to the point where he got rather indignant with me...lol.

I ended up caving after a 5 minute standoff.





If you ever get a trail cam set up....it would be awesome to see them knocking off those fence post tops!

[Jolly Amaranto]

I have been have mouse problems. A few weeks ago my brother and I were at the "family place" in central Texas doing some maintenance and painting. I decided to fire up the old gas grill to burn some burgers for dinner. I have had problems before with mice colonizing the grill. During the drought a few years back I lit the grill and a flaming mouse dropped out of the bottom and ran for the tinder dry woods. Afraid that I might be responsible for burning down the county, I chased down the poor mouse and put it out of its misery before it made it to the woods. So this time I opened the grill to carefully inspect it and sure enough, there was a resident mouse.

We tried to get it to leave but it ran down under the gas jets and would not come out. Well, you asked for it mouse, I lit the burners. Our burgers did not taste any different in the end. The next morning I opened up my old minivan and found the front seat and floor covered with shredded peppermint wrappers and mouse droppings. I keep a stash of restaurant style peppermints in the door bin to eat while driving occasionally. I cleaned up the mess and wrote it off as "revenge" of the mouse clan. I never figured out how the mouse got in. Fast forward to this last Saturday. I had just driven back from another work session at the family property the day before. Again, the front seat was covered in shredded peppermint wrappers and mouse droppings. Oh no, they followed me home. A quick search on line to find natural ways to discourage mice.

Natural methods for getting rid of mice include the use of deterrents like strong smells that drive the mice away. Peppermint and used kitty litter are both known to be effective mouse deterrents.

I do not have a source of used kitty litter and did not want to put that in the car anyway. As for peppermint, well obviously I am dealing with defective mice here. Time to get out the mouse traps. I had a live trap I wanted to see how effective it was and an old Victor spring trap. I put peanut butter on the spring trap trigger pad and on the inside of the live trap. I put the live trap in the car and the spring trap under it. The next morning the spring trap was still set but the peanut butter was cleaned off real well. Hmm, not very sensitive. Inside the car, the live trap was somehow rolled over and closed but the peanut butter was all there. The defective mouse had managed to set it off without reaping the rewards inside. It tried to chew its way in but gave up. I wedged a cashew into the trigger pad of the spring trap. That worked this time. So now that the mouse was gone, it was time to vacuum out the the van of mint wrappers and mouse droppings and find a hole. A gasket around a cable had pulled loose from the fire wall under the dash allowing free passage so I re-seated that. Much to my surprise I started to find whole unwrapped and un-chewed but sticky peppermints stashed in nooks and crannies all over the inside of van. There were a bunch wedged between the cushions of the back seat that was folded up and hidden beneath the cargo deck in back. There were more in the floor wells where the middle seat locks in. The strange revenge of the mouse clan.

[tevake]

That sucks Bob, good luck getting it sorted out without too much hassle.

My 911 got towed home from the last outing about a week ago.
I've been doing battle with mice and rats in the shop since I've been here.
They're not as funny as the squirrels.
I'm still trying to find the wiring issue. No power to the fuel pump.

Well Jolly,
I guess I'll forgo trying the peppermint oil that I had been reading about. Used cat litter? Nope got none of that either. Been thinking about getting a cat tho.
But they have invented a better mouse trap, it's a plastic thing that is so easy and safe to set, it really is better I tell you.

Wow Baz, That squirrel really got in your face, cute little cheeky bugger.

Cheers Richard

[SCadaddle]

The Jays are like the Crows with shiny objects. Nearly lost the keys to my 911 one day with Jaybird!

[tevake]

Yikes SCadaddle, making off with your keys, scary.
But Jaybird looks like an indoor friend. Is it a family member?

Cheers Richard