Well, I guess that's one way.

Wagtail · Feb 19, 2019

On a different angle... I once found a young, drowned, brush-tailed possum in the horse's round poly water trough. The reason was that it obviously slipped in whilst having a drink but couldn't get back out.

So I bought some plastic 'gutter mesh' and screwed a section onto the rim of the trough so that it hung inside = effectively making a "scramble net" for anything to be able to get out.

I haven't found any critters in any of my horse troughs since doing this (6+ years).

MossRoad · Feb 19, 2019

Wagtail said:
On a different angle... I once found a young, drowned, brush-tailed possum in the horse's round poly water trough. The reason was that it obviously slipped in whilst having a drink but couldn't get back out.

So I bought some plastic 'gutter mesh' and screwed a section onto the rim of the trough so that it hung inside = effectively making a "scramble net" for anything to be able to get out.

I haven't found any critters in any of my horse troughs since doing this (6+ years).

I found a dead squirrel in our above ground pool one summer. I had taken the ladder out of the pool so the cleaning robot wouldn't get tangled in the ladder, and forgot to put the ladder back in. I felt kinda bad for the poor thing. I was on its side on the bottom, with it's tail strait up like a scared cat, slowly spinning round and round in the center of the pool with the current.

Doofy · Feb 19, 2019

We have an old c-band satellite dish that is upside down in the woods behind the house. This is our alter of dead things and food scraps that we offer to our animal and feathered friends. Ravens do a fly-by every morning to scope it out.

MossRoad · Feb 19, 2019

Doofy said:
We have an old c-band satellite dish that is upside down in the woods behind the house. This is our alter of dead things and food scraps that we offer to our animal and feathered friends. Ravens do a fly-by every morning to scope it out.

Nice! That kind of thing would start some rumors down here in Indiana. :laughing:

Doofy · Feb 19, 2019

MossRoad said:
Nice! That kind of thing would start some rumors down here in Indiana. :laughing:

Mother Nature does a wonderful job of cleanup. We have a osprey nest a couple miles behind the house and we see them carrying fish back to their nest all summer long to feed their babies. We have walked around under the best looking for fish bones and there are none. Evidently, small rodents eat those bones for the calcium. The area is perfectly clean and there is no smell. Fox, coyote, wolves and bear take care of any large creatures that may die.

MossRoad · Feb 19, 2019

Doofy said:
Mother Nature does a wonderful job of cleanup. We have a osprey nest a couple miles behind the house and we see them carrying fish back to their nest all summer long to feed their babies. We have walked around under the best looking for fish bones and there are none. Evidently, small rodents eat those bones for the calcium. The area is perfectly clean and there is no smell. Fox, coyote, wolves and bear take care of any large creatures that may die.

Makes you wonder if maybe the ospreys are just good housekeepers, or if the animals below are having a feast? I know a lot of birds like wrens and robbins will take the chicks' poop away from the nest and drop them elsewhere. I once installed a motion sensor camera/vcr at our back gate. The first day I saw a robin landing on the gate with food in it's beak, poops on the sidewalk and flies away. Couple minutes later, it comes back in the other direction, lands on the gate with poop in it's beak, drops the poop and poops itself, then flew away. 4 hours of that... the tape was full! :laughing:

Diggin It · Feb 19, 2019

Pepe has been removed from the resting place I assigned and deposited in an open field across the road. Who knows by who. Aside from the various ground predators, there is a sky full of winged predators.

oosik · Feb 19, 2019

That's a nice way to keep the critters food up off the ground Doofy. Do you ever have bears visit? The year I was in Glennallen - there was always talk of black bears at the Copper Center garbage dump. Of course, by now - it's probably a sanitary landfill operation. No more open garbage.

Doofy · Feb 19, 2019

oosik said:
That's a nice way to keep the critters food up off the ground Doofy. Do you ever have bears visit? The year I was in Glennallen - there was always talk of black bears at the Copper Center garbage dump. Of course, by now - it's probably a sanitary landfill operation. No more open garbage.

We see bears every now and then. It's the ones we don't see that are worrisome. We have a low spot about 40 feet behind the house that we decided to clear of brush and trees. While cleaning, we discovered numerous large piles of fresh bear scat from more than one bear. It appeared that they were camped out for several days, just watching the house. We keep a closer eye on the beagle now. We also added surveillance cameras that now keep watch in all directions.