BS: Varmints

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: keberoxu
Date: 18 Dec 20 - 08:33 PM

Haven't seen any animal tracks in the newly-fallen snow yet.
But it was, after all, some twelve to eighteen inches of snow,
and all at once, too.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: keberoxu
Date: 06 Dec 20 - 09:04 AM

The trees are bare, the wind is blowing, the sky is overcast,
and two large grey squirrels
are chasing each other up and down a treetrunk.

Hey, you guys, it isn't even spring yet ...

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Senoufou
Date: 21 Nov 20 - 01:06 PM

I think the Police may be involved keberoxu. It was after all a 'road accident' and the outcome could so easily have been much worse.
The latest update is that the deer is 'alright and being looked after at home by his owner'.
It's interesting that this animal has divided the village into two vociferous groups. The "We love BamBam!" set and the "This blooming thing is a danger and a nuisance!" group.
Not many people have asked after the unfortunate, shaken-up driver of the 4X4!!

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: keberoxu
Date: 20 Nov 20 - 08:49 PM

I wonder if there is a way for the village, collectively,
to, I don't know, do something besides
wait for something worse to happen ...

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Senoufou
Date: 18 Nov 20 - 12:51 PM

Well I'm afraid that BamBam the tame deer was hit by a 4X4 Land Rover about an hour ago. The driver is very shaken, although not injured. His car is damaged of course.
The deer has a bruised back leg, but my lovely neighbour, the veterinary nurse, ran down to attend to him and she reckons he'll be alright. With the help of another village resident she lifted him into her vehicle and they took him home to his owner.
This is a serious warning to his owner that his meanderings must stop. He should be in a secure environment, preferably with other deer. He isn't a 'pet', he's a wild creature.
The whole village is buzzing and everyone here is very very concerned.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: keberoxu
Date: 15 Nov 20 - 11:12 PM

We need a pesky varmint update.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: keberoxu
Date: 28 Oct 20 - 05:09 PM

For the first time in months,
I spotted both a black squirrel and a grey squirrel,
at the same time and place,
each hurrying up the trunk of a different tree.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: keberoxu
Date: 26 Oct 20 - 08:20 PM

We're still getting beetles that creep indoors
to get away from the cold.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Senoufou
Date: 21 Oct 20 - 02:44 PM

Ah, what a sweetie! I'd have popped out with a few treats for it. Here the squirrels are collecting up all the acorns (bumper crop this year - our numerous oak trees in Norfolk have been busy!) and storing them in secret caches for winter. They wake up periodically from hibernation and have a bite to eat.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: keberoxu
Date: 21 Oct 20 - 12:43 PM

The squirrels are acting, I don't know, desperate of late.
Much bolder about begging for handouts.
One of the funniest things I saw this month,
was looking through the window, where I'm staying, outside
to the patio with outdoor tables and chairs,
some close to the window and the door outside.

A fat furry grey squirrel hopped up from ground to chair to table,
hunting every inch of the surface, sniffing all over.
Then the squirrel hopped to the chair nearest the window,
balanced on the top of the chair back,
and turned its head to one side so that one eye was facing the window.
And I swear
that squirrel was paying attention to our moving forms behind the windowpane glass,
hoping we would saunter out the door and hand-feed it or something.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Senoufou
Date: 20 Oct 20 - 10:41 AM

You're quite right keberoxu, the deer should have been trained when younger. He's been thoroughly spoiled all his life (nine months now) by all the children, visitors and tourists coming up to him, stroking, offering sweets and even swimming with him in our river.
Now of course summer is over, the children are back at school and no more tourists are coming here. He's lonely and confused.
He's actually the size of a horse, meaty and weighs a lot. If he pushes against you he knocks you over.
Also, he's often prancing down the middle of the road or the winding lanes. So many vehicles have nearly hit him, or swerved to avoid him.
He's not yet fully grown (!!) so heaven help us when he's full-size.
We all think he should me moved to some sort of deer park, enclosed and safe.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: keberoxu
Date: 20 Oct 20 - 09:40 AM

This all sounds highly territorial,
what the castrated deer is doing,
trying to mark everything and everybody.

I wonder how one trains a deer to do this sort of thing differently.
I suppose the training, if there be such,
would have had to happen during the juvenile stages anyhow.
So the little fellow, when he was really little,
was handled very permissively,
and this is the lamentable result ...

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Senoufou
Date: 19 Oct 20 - 04:46 PM

Wonder what had died keberoxu? A bit sinister!
Husband is indeed very brave (not scared of spiders either)
The latest about Bambam this evening is he was found standing right on top of a large picnic table just outside the village shop. (This is where people can have a coffee and a cooked snack during the daytime) Cars were swerving as motorists did a double-take and stared at a deer on a table! I suppose it was a look-out point for him. But he then weed all over it (disgusting!)
He's getting to be a right nuisance!

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: keberoxu
Date: 19 Oct 20 - 03:44 PM

Eliza/Senoufou,
your husband only needs a suit of shining armor
in order to be a gallant and chivalrous knight,
coming to the rescue of the hapless damsels.


Earlier today, from a parking-lot vantage looking down a street,
my attention was caught by four or five crows
high overhead near the rainclouds, flying in a slow circle.
Must have been something very dead nearby ...

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Senoufou
Date: 17 Oct 20 - 03:00 PM

Just yesterday morning keberoxu we walked down to the village shop and there was a right fracas going on. The thing had tried to mount and mate with the shopkeeper-lady and had weed all over the entrance to the shop. She was furious and chucked a bucket of water all over it. But it wouldn't go away. It's getting aggressive, and several people think it's 'rutting' in spite of having been castrated.
Husband was very brave. He confronted it and swore loudly in Malinke ("Eh boh da!") right in its face. It stared at him (never seen a black person before!) then it shuffled off.
Something will have to be done to contain the creature, or there will be an 'incident' (road accident or someone injured)

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: keberoxu
Date: 17 Oct 20 - 08:14 AM

I don't know, at this point, if
Bam-Bam is a mere varmint,
or a public nuisance and a menace to society?

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: keberoxu
Date: 10 Oct 20 - 01:20 PM

... and driving the highway this morning
to get the emissions inspection for my car,
there was a very dead, plump young raccoon in the road,
right in the travel lane.
Could not go round, so
drove with my wheels to either side
and the car body over the raccoon's body,
and BUMP --
too fat to be flattened,
the raccoon and the undercarriage nudged each other.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: keberoxu
Date: 09 Oct 20 - 07:44 PM

Here's what I mean about
raccoons going viral.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: keberoxu
Date: 07 Oct 20 - 01:41 PM

What is this I hear about
a raccoon at the White House ?

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Senoufou
Date: 02 Sep 20 - 12:48 PM

I agree entirely Steve. My friend across the road has rung the Police (on the non-emergency number of course)and they say it's a hazard on the roads and should not be entering gardens etc. They said the next time it's seen, they'll contact the RSPCA who will sort it out with the lady.
As my friend said, if it were a horse, cow or pig etc people would be reporting it immediately.
It actually isn't 'sweet' - it kicked a little girl in the stomach last week when she tried to stroke it. It's blooming huge.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 02 Sep 20 - 11:15 AM

One goat from the adjoining farm trashed our garden one afternoon last summer when everything was at its peak. I am not amused by any non-native mammal at large in this country, finding them neither charming nor cuddly.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Senoufou
Date: 02 Sep 20 - 10:34 AM

Sorry to keep posting, but the latest news from this Mad Norfolk Village is that the lady who 'owns' Bambam has got herself a few goats. They followed the deer out of the Old Rectory grounds and have been spotted roaming around in a large group, having yet more floral snacks from gardens.
Sounds like a Seventies pop group - 'Bambam and The Goats'!

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Senoufou
Date: 31 Aug 20 - 05:11 PM

If you google bambam & buddies and click on the Instagram link you can see several photos of the blooming deer, including one of him going into The Fox through the front door.
There's also a lovely song composed by a lady in the village. Her link is Glow-worms ohdeerbambam.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Senoufou
Date: 31 Aug 20 - 04:45 PM

You're right Steve. People give him treats and snacks, plus he helps himself to any plants in any gardens. He has quite a large tum in my opinion. Not natural at all.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 31 Aug 20 - 04:30 PM

Probably because he's eating all your begonias....

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Senoufou
Date: 31 Aug 20 - 01:25 PM

I've just come indoors after sitting on The Bench chatting to a neighbour (socially distanced of course). While we were talking, a large group of teenage children went past on their bikes. Running along beside them was Bambam the tame red deer. He looked so happy, as if he were one of a 'herd'.
He really is getting big.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: keberoxu
Date: 29 Aug 20 - 08:34 PM

Was much entertained, just now, by a post
about two young energetic dogs
almost taking down a squirrel in someone's backyard.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Senoufou
Date: 27 Aug 20 - 06:49 AM

Ah, your mum must have been enchanted Jon! They are pretty creatures, with their delicate legs.
In our last house, in Newton St Faith, we had a huge garden bordering on fields, with only a shallow ditch in between (no fences). All sorts of creatures wandered into the garden, including a lovely pair of fallow deer, a mother and her daughter. They were after the blossom on our ornamental flowering almond tree. They used to stretch their necks up to munch away.
I think you're right about the 'escapees' from posh landed gentry's parks. It seemed to be the fashion to have herds of 'ornamental' deer, and they would obviously get out and about in the area.
I visited one of 'my' prisoners down in Suffolk, and on the drive down, groups of deer would alarmingly emerge from the woods along the way and dart in front of me! Couldn't say which species - I was too busy hitting the brakes!

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 27 Aug 20 - 06:37 AM

It’s been a while since I last saw red deer in the field where I am in North Norfolk but if I did, they would probably be (as has been believed to be the case in the past) escapees from the 1000 acre Gunton Park. When I have seen them, I’ve just hoped they stay the far side of the field and away from us and they have obliged.

There were a couple of sightings of roe deer in the field this year and one of them came within 10-15yds of mum when she was having her tea outside when it came along, had a nibble of some tree leaves and possibly a drink before moving on but that’s been our lot.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Senoufou
Date: 27 Aug 20 - 02:51 AM

Gosh that's interesting Steve. And as you say, since they hobnob with cattle in the fields, they could be transmitting TB to them.
They're causing lots of damage to trees in Norfolk by 'de-barking' young saplings. There have been moves afoot to start culling, since numbers of deer have risen alarmingly over the past few years.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Aug 20 - 06:18 PM

There's also the suspicion that deer are an important vector of bovine TB. And they're a damn sight more mobile than badgers, and they harmoniously mix with cattle in pastures. But badgers are only good for shaving brushes, whereas deer have Bambi, so they'll be fine...

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Senoufou
Date: 26 Aug 20 - 04:42 PM

There are large numbers of all types of deer here in Norfolk: roe, muntjac, fallow and red. They carry Lyme's disease in ticks, but Bambam has been de-ticked by his 'owner'. He's been castrated and has a microchip too.
The latest news is that she has offered to compensate any people whose plants/flowers have been eaten by him.
I don't really approve of 'domesticating' or keeping as pets naturally wild creatures, but she raised him from a tiny fawn, abandoned on her land, by bottle-feeding him. I suppose she did the best she could.

The huge flock of blasted crows has now taken to assembling on our bungalow roof and tap-dancing in what sounds like wooden clogs at dawn each morning. Appalling din, but it does make me giggle (husband, not so much!)

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Aug 20 - 04:23 PM

There are no truly native deer in Cornwall, bar roe deer which are only here anyway by dint of human encouragement, but there are plenty of them around and they are a menace. Totally out of balance. Round here, the only good deer is the one in your freezer in steak form.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Senoufou
Date: 26 Aug 20 - 10:44 AM

You're quite right keberoxu. Many people here are saying the same things. Bambam wanders all over the place and our narrow streets are winding. I so hope that some motorist doesn't run into him. The whole village would mourn his loss, that's for sure.
His 'owner' has made a nice hi-viz jacket for him to wear when he's out and about. I reckon he needs a nappy too, for when he enters the pub!
(nappy = diaper)

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: keberoxu
Date: 25 Aug 20 - 05:43 PM

I reckon, sadly, that were this animal in the US,
his days would be short indeed;
a tame deer would not get the same treatment here.

And I wonder, not to be pessimistic,
how long the deer can be kept safe.
For that, he is extremely dependent upon humans,
and humans can be, well, careless and cruel amongst other things.

It's a tough world for 'varmints.'

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Senoufou
Date: 24 Aug 20 - 03:28 PM

Goodness robomatic! Moose, bear, beaver - what a great selection of animals you have there!
Out tame village deer Bambam has disgraced himself. He turned up one evening recently at the door of the village pub (called The Fox) and they invited him in! He's the size of a horse. He wandered into the main area and suddenly pissed copiously all over the carpet hee hee. There was a large steaming lake of it, followed by a hail of pellets of poo. The landlord was naturally furious and chased Bambam out, while the landlady started the Major Cleanup.
The pub has only just re-opened due to the Virus Lockdown, so this was very ill-timed. I don't think he'll be invited back in there ever again. When we heard about it (we don't go to the pub) we nearly died laughing.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: robomatic
Date: 24 Aug 20 - 09:18 AM

My main exercise is walking a dog, not my own, with her keepers, and occasionally hiking with one of them. They live nearby and it turns out there are some nice open spaces in their neighborhood, which is pleasantly upholstered with school grounds melded into some municipal parkland, good continuous concrete sidewalks and curved routings so you never feel confined to a grid. And treed areas in which the wildlife can hide. One of the wildlife is a huge bull moose which has wandered through the suburbs for the last few years. While you never treat a moose as a domestic animal, this one appears to have a personality like Ferdinand, he has enjoyed the lawn sprinklers on some of our hotter days, and apparently lounged within ten feet of a local family barbecue with no one getting excited about his proximity. He would be a prize 'harvest' were he in the wild. And as I mentioned earlier in this pandemic, a black bear has been seen round the corner treading the sidewalk (by me). Nevertheless those same sidewalks are populated by bicyclists and babycarriages (and me). We've had the annual visits from stellar jays, which are plump jaybirds with a crowned black head and upperbody shading into a midnight blue with a bit of a sheen toward the tail. They are talkative birds, the ones that passed through my yard seemed to have a long complex message to pass amongst themselves and to me, but less raucous than our constant companions, the magpies. While I haven't seen beaver in years, my largest tree was heavily eaten into by something that must have been a team of them, within the last couple years. Since the tree is a cottonwood, I'm sure my neighbors were rooting the beavers on.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Senoufou
Date: 21 Aug 20 - 12:36 PM

Oh how lovely Steve. I think you're living in an earthly paradise similar to our village.
Yesterday evening our whole street was outside because Bambam the tame red deer had wandered up and was happily browsing on everyone's flowers in all the front gardens. He's very big, but completely tame and gentle. We were all worried about passing cars and a possible tragic accident, so I fetched some biscuits and my soft dressing-gown belt. While he munched on a Rich Tea, I gently put the belt round his neck and nose (like a horse's halter) and we all quietly led him back down the road to the Old Rectory.
Trouble is, apparently he was back again very early this morning and has eaten most of my neighbour-across-the-road's begonias, much to her fury! Other neighbour (adjacent to us) said "Oi'd loik him in a noice venison stoo with a foo caaarrots n' taters!"
Regarding moths, aren't there a lot this year? Our house seems to be full of them. I try to liberate them but they get squashed so easily when one tries to catch them.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 16 Aug 20 - 07:06 PM

And the weather's been horrible: hardly any sun for days, hot and with high humidity. But I saw all that in my garden today. Then, a few minutes ago, I stepped outside into the dark, hot evening, and the stars gleamed out at long last through the boughs of my pride-and-joy big beech tree. The moths were all about. Beauty and calm enveloped me and I even thought of singing a song (but Mrs Steve was in bed and she might've thought I was doing my Romeo to her Juliet bit...). God sat on a nearby tree stump and asked me why I didn't need him. I told him that the beauty and diversity of all around me were all I needed, magic not required. He slunk off in a huff, and I'll swear he was muttering that I'll never get to heaven. Bugger that, I thought, I'm OK here...

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 16 Aug 20 - 06:46 PM

So today's good stuff: a comma butterfly, a peacock butterfly, a couple of red admirals, a speckled wood, a common blue, a couple of small tortoisehells (not enough), a European hornet (they're fine!), several species of bumblebees on my Salvia "hotlips", a pair of woodpeckers, a coal tit, loads of blue tits and great tits, a couple of goldfinches, jays, dunnocks, chaffinches, a robin that wouldn't leave me alone in the garden, loads of blackbirds...

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: keberoxu
Date: 16 Aug 20 - 02:06 PM

My first RED squirrel in donkey's years.

I grew up, decades and decades ago,
where there were squirrels
both red and grey.
In time, the grey squirrels, who are much larger,
crowded out the red squirrels in that region;
and most likely there were other contributing factors.
But what I recall is that after a time,
one only saw grey squirrels and no more red squirrels.

Presently I am staying in a different part of the country,
where there are mountains, foothills,
protected forests, acres and acres of green trees,
and
the squirrels come in three colors:

black, grey, and red.

The black squirrels and the grey squirrels are different in color
and alike in every other respect. Same size, proportions.
Occasionally I have spotted a sort of
brindle-furred squirrel of the same size,
which I take to be grey-squirrel-plus-black-squirrel.

The red squirrels, though, the little ones,
are still here; there is room for any and all squirrels here,
and they don't crowd each other out.

So, where did I spot the little red squirrel yesterday?
Why, at the local branch of
MacDonald's fast-food restaurants, of course,
diving into a dustbin by the parking spaces,
looking for something edible.
It was hilarious to watch the little beast going in headfirst
with his furry red plume of a tail sticking out above the dustbin.
It was only in there for a minute or two,
apparently whatever was in the dustbin
wasn't even fit for a red squirrel to eat.
Then,
out again, across the alley, and up the nearest pine tree,
and leaping from pine tree to pine tree
next to the shopping center, wheeeeee!

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Senoufou
Date: 14 Aug 20 - 03:32 PM

We had a bumble bee trapped inside our conservatory this morning. I'll swear it was the size of a golf ball! I got a hand towel and gently encased it, then let it go outside. I'm never scared of bees or stingy thing, just spiders.
Steve, your wildlife plot sounds gorgeous. Well done for encouraging all those species. Shame about the 'invaders' though.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 14 Aug 20 - 02:31 PM

I spent more than thirty years turning our half-acre rural-coastal garden from a bleak, open field into wildlife heaven. We get an amazing diversity of spiders, insects, birds, reptiles, amphibians and small mammals and I love that. But this year we've had a swarm of honeybees actually living in our shower room under the shower tray (accessed by a tiny hole in the exterior stonework we hadn't even noticed), a wasps' nest right over our front porch, a plague of grey squirrels (alien), a plague of rabbits (alien), masses of cluster flies all over the garden, pheasants (alien) trashing a section of our lawn and destroying my fuschia hedge, wood pigeons demolishing my broad bean crop, an absolute plague of large white butterfly caterpillars and a horrid resurgence of Dutch Elm Disease which has killed several large trees already and which is threatening lots of others. In chapter two I'll tell you about the nice bits...

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: keberoxu
Date: 14 Aug 20 - 12:14 PM

Nutria! Now, there's a varmint for you!

I've never been in areas, I don't believe,
where the nutria were introduced and became pests.
I understand that they reproduce like rabbits!

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Aug 20 - 10:30 AM

Bears can be moved and if it isn't very far away they will return, quicker than you might imagine.

Some foolish people have been feeding nutria (an introduced fur-bearing rodent) in one of the parks upstream from my house. I expect one of these days they'll become part of the excitement in the back yard. It's legal to deal with them as pests, but you can't keep them because they are fur-bearing (and were used for coats at the turn of the last century, hence their introduction).

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Senoufou
Date: 14 Aug 20 - 04:09 AM

Oh dear, the poor bear - he must be very hungry.
That tame red deer Bambam has been munching on flowers in tubs on people's patios and peering in windows wanting to come in. He's also swimming with all the children down at the river Wensum, and playing with people's dogs, chasing round and round. He turned up at the riding stables one evening and started teasing the horses in their paddock by butting them on their bottoms (he has no horns as he's been neutered) He's an absolute scream, but he can be a danger on the roads.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: keberoxu
Date: 13 Aug 20 - 09:49 PM

Another night, another bear.
Well, it could be the same bear, for all I know.
He's at the dumpster and the trash, of course.
I didn't look out the window but others did
and they say the bear left quite a mess while dumpster diving.

Wonder if somebody will call the cops again...

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: keberoxu
Date: 21 Jul 20 - 06:54 PM

The bear got away from the police.
Don't ask me how, because they treed the bear.
The patrol car pulled in, and out came the policemen
and one of them had some sort of gun (tranquilizer?).
But somehow, the bear got away.

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: keberoxu
Date: 19 Jul 20 - 08:29 PM

Some big hungry bears are coming down from the mountain and hill forests
to knock over people's dumpsters.
Where I'm staying,
there was just a flurry of excitement with others running about saying,
"Don't go outside! There's a big bear out there!"
and running from window to window in the fading evening light,
trying to see the big old thing.

I just stayed at the computer ...

Subject: RE: BS: Varmints
From: Penny S.
Date: 03 Jul 20 - 05:41 AM

In Aldi or in Lidl, and probably other places, I have been able to buy black mesh with velcro fixings to cover the windows. You can get white mesh too, but I prefer the black as it's barely visible. It does the job of screens.