Since we’ve moved in, we’ve seen a lot of wildlife in our yard … and even what we haven’t seen, we’ve known has been there while we’re sleeping. We wake up in the morning to find the cat’s food bowl broken, flowers dug out of the pots on the deck, pool toys ruptured, or the water bags around the pool shredded and drug away. Last night was the first night, though, that we saw at least one of the culprits. Around dusk, a raccoon came sauntering down the driveway by the house and promptly made himself comfortable on the front step munching on cat chow.

Only about 15 minutes after we chased the raccoon away (temporarily at least – the cat’s bowl was empty and upset when we got up this morning), we looked outside and saw a buck emerging from the ravine. He stood on the driveway for a while and then meandered back down the hill.

I’m always amazed when we see wildlife like this in our yard considering that we live in the middle of a city … it really makes me wonder what else is roaming around our yard that we haven’t spotted!

A couple of nights ago, we came home from dinner and found this baby owl hanging out by the pool!

He seemed a little afraid at first, but got used to us being around pretty quickly. We tried to shoo him out of the fenced in area around the pool since we weren’t sure he could fly out on his own, but he refused to move, so we just left him and he was gone the next morning. I hope he’s ok – he was sure cute!

When we moved in last fall, our swimming pool had already been closed for the season. All winter, the pool has been covered with the winter cover (that resembles a large tarp). The cover is weighted down with water bags. The bags work pretty well at keeping the cover in place, but starting shortly after we moved in, something has been ripping the them to shreds and dragging them down the hillside away from the pool. At first we thought some animal was trying to get to the water, but even when the pool (and water bags) were covered with snow this winter, something was digging them up and tearing the bags to shreds even though the water inside them was frozen. It’s been a complete mystery to us. The bags are pretty heavy, so it doesn’t seem like something that an animal the size of a raccoon could do, but it doesn’t seem like the work of a person. We’re also confused about why any animal would bother doing this.

Today, we spent some time out by the pool pumping some of the water off of the cover since the pool was getting pretty full and they’re predicting rain for the next couple of days. While we were out there, we replaced another 4 of the water bags that had been punctured and dragged off of the pool cover. Hopefully we’ll be able to get through the next month or so without the water bags getting destroyed. I’m definitely looking forward to opening the pool when it gets warm enough so we don’t have to deal with this any more. Maybe we’ll have to think about a different type of cover next fall – one that’s animal proof …

Since moving in to our new house, we’ve had a couple of encounters with various creatures wanting to enjoy our home with us (see post: Things That Go “Bump” in the Night). The week before Christmas, the saga continued when we found a bat swooping around in the stair well while we were getting ready for work one morning.

Our first attempt to catch him involved putting a laundry basket over him while he was laying on the hallway floor. Unfortunately, by the time we came up with the idea of using a laundry basket and located an empty one, he was on the go. When we found him again, he was laying on the corner of the crown molding in our dining room. So, we opened all of the doors and started poking him with the end of a broom hoping he would take flight so we could shoo him outside. Unfortunately, all of the poking caused him to squeak a few times, but we couldn’t get him to move. Based on his lack of activity, we think he must of been sick. We finally got him out by climbing on a step stool, picking him up (wearing gloves, of course), putting him in an empty coffee can, and releasing him far away from our house.

I just hope he didn’t leave behind too many friends that think it will be a good idea to try to move in with us. Looks like we might have to consider bat-proofing our house …

So, it’s not all that unusual to see deer in town … and it’s not completely unlikely to find them in your own yard, but over the last few days, we discovered that we have what appears to be a family of deer living in our neighborhood and they’ve been spending a lot of time hanging out in our back yard.

Here’s a photo of the first time we saw them … they were bedded down in the ravine area to the side of our house:

We saw them again the following night, sleeping in our back yard. The photo didn’t turn out very good, but here it is:

And the following day, we came home from work to find them snacking right outside our living room windows:

Here’s a link to the rest of the photos we took.

I’m sure it’ll be annoying in the spring when all of our plants are getting eaten, but right now, we think it’s pretty cool to be sharing our yard with so many of them.

When moving into a different home, there’s always a new set of noises to get used to. The first couple of nights we stayed in this house, I don’t think we would have slept at all had we not been so exhausted from moving. Since then, though, we’ve gotten more accustomed to the sounds that go with our century old home, we’ve learned to sleep through trains, and started to get a feel for what’s the wind rather than would-be-burglars. Having said that, last night was full of things that go “bump” in the night.

It started about an hour after we went to bed with some critter trying to find shelter between the window air conditioner and its cover. It sounded something like a bird, but we never did see it. We pounded on the wall and got out flash lights trying to figure out what was making such a ruckus, but we never caught a glimpse of it. After we finally got back to sleep following the bird-in-the-air-conditioner incident, we woke up again to some scurrying, flapping, and squeaking noises in the attic over our bed. We weren’t brave enough to open the attic access panel in the middle of the night to see what type of creature it might be, but we’re suspicious of bats. Ug. And then at about 4:00 this morning an animal of some type was making a horrible screeching noise right outside our bedroom window. Scary … until we realized it was outside. I’m pretty convinced, though, that the woodland creatures have decided it’s time to gang up on us.

Most of last night’s issues seem to be temporary in nature, with the exception of the bats in the attic. So now, we’re trying to figure out what to do with bats. The option of trying to get up in the attic with a butterfly net to go after them doesn’t sound so appealing. We’re thinking there’s got to be an easier way, but when I looked at the super market tonight, I couldn’t find any “pest control” items for bats. Has anyone had any luck with anything other than a broom or a net? I’d really love to get them out and not have to be woken up by this again!