{"id":2061,"date":"2018-10-06T11:45:50","date_gmt":"2018-10-06T15:45:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelittlehalfacre.com\/staging\/?p=2061"},"modified":"2018-12-05T10:27:37","modified_gmt":"2018-12-05T15:27:37","slug":"2061-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelittlehalfacre.com\/staging\/2061-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Critter Report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Of course we live with our backs to a wilderness mountainside with hundreds of acres of critter habitat.\u00a0 So we have animals of all sorts among and around us.\u00a0 Some are welcome and some are not…<\/p>\n

Copperheads<\/strong>
\nThis spring Larry found a snake skin in the wood pile.\u00a0 It turned out to be a copperhead that had shed its skin.\u00a0 There was the large, wedge-shaped head and, if you opened the mouth, you could see the holes where the two large front fangs were.\u00a0 What was cool was the skin left a perfect 3-D impression of inside the mouth, and you could see the elongated poison sacs behind each hole where the fangs were.\u00a0 Copperheads are all around us.\u00a0 I’ve almost grabbed one on two different occasions when weeding in the undergrowth around berries.\u00a0 Luckily, they were lethargic in the cool weather and headed the other way!\u00a0 But those are the only two we’ve seen in our 3 years here.\u00a0 The copperheads here are colored very different than the ones we’re used to.\u00a0 These don’t show the bright copper colors and light browns and light tans.\u00a0 They are darker brown and the heads are a darker, muted copper.\u00a0 Hard to see around all the black and dark gray rocks.<\/p>\n

Various Assorted “Good” Snakes<\/strong>
\nOf course we have “Big Bubba,” an impressive\/scary 8+ ft. black racer, various smaller black racers, black rat snakes and the occasional black snake.\u00a0 We like to see these guys around– as they eat rodents and are even known to eat copperheads. And I found a little ring necked snake under one of my buckets one day.\u00a0 Cute little guy.<\/p>\n

Bears<\/strong>
\nLarry happened to go to the door one day in early September and saw a black bear eating my bird suet.\u00a0 He had bent over my wrought iron bird feeder stand, bent it like an upside down letter V!\u00a0 The bear scampered off across the branch and into the woods when Larry opened the door.\u00a0 Kinda makes you sleep with one eye open when we have to keep the windows up during warm summer nights.\u00a0 The wildlife people relocated a nuisance bear from the Asheville area and turned it loose up Stagger Weed Road (Yes, that’s the real name), just a couple of miles from us.\u00a0 So far, Asheville’s “nuisance” bear has killed two goats belonging to a friend of ours who lives in the area.<\/p>\n

Foxes<\/strong>
\nWe haven’t actually seen foxes.\u00a0 But we’ve heard them and can see where they dig in our yard looking for moles and voles.\u00a0 Every few mornings lately, our cat Thomas comes hurrying back in the house, all shaken and jittery, after we let him out at first light as we ordinarily do.\u00a0 We suspect he’s had a close encounter with a fox.\u00a0 Thomas will go to the windows to nervously look outside for the critter.<\/p>\n

Coyotes<\/strong>
\nAt least we haven’t had coyotes since our first fall when we saw a herd of 10-12 deer 20 yards across one of our branches.\u00a0 That was unusual.\u00a0 We usually see a doe with one or two fawns– and once we saw a couple of young bucks passing through.\u00a0 The bucks are stealthy.\u00a0 After seeing that herd of does, we could hear the coyotes calling to each other that night as they were probably stalking the deer.<\/p>\n

I love my wild birds!\u00a0 I now have three feeders on my new steel stand.\u00a0 I still have those bands of marauding squirrels that manage to foil my protection and occasionally get to the \"\"<\/a>seed.\u00a0 But here’s a list of some of the birds we see in our front yard, year-round:<\/p>\n