A Tiny Visitor

[19&41]

Here at work, walking down the hallway, I saw what appeared to be a bug scurrying toward the wall's baseboard. I had to look closer because it looked like it had a tail. It was a tiny lizard, about an inch and a half long. it was brown with tan and brown rings round it's tail. I went to our front desk and got out a sign in sheet and spent a few minutes trying to get it to scoop up then stay on the sheet. I finally got it on there and took it outside, to seek it's fame and fortune elsewhere. I've never seen one like this before. I have the larger green and blue ones living on the walls of my house.

[electra225]

He was lost and you saved him. You did a good thing.....

[TC Chris]

I have the larger green and blue ones living on the walls of my house.

It's all about geography, no? Our area email listserv has been featuring photos of bears, foxes, and bobcats in people's yards recently. No lizards....

Chris Campbell

[19&41]

I'll take the lizards.

[TC Chris]

The mammals are all cool ones, though. Black bears rarely threaten people unless you get between mom and her cubs. Foxes are benign and they eat rodents. Bobcats are ultra-cool because they are so elusive. At my cottage on Saginaw Bay I've transported quite a few baby turtles--snappers, painted, Blanding's. The turtles lay their eggs in the yards along the Bay and then the hatchlings make their way toward the marsh across the road behind. Turtles are very determined creatures. Make sure you help them by carrying them the way they are headed because that's the way they are going to go.

I'm trying to recall how turtles navigate. Some animals use the earth's magnetic field. Some use angle of sun combined with time of day and season of the year (was it the 18th century when humans managed that feat?). Some use polarized light. Some use smell (sea lamprey find their way to their native streams that way, I think). Best for us higher primates to be modest....

Chris Campbell

[Firedome]

We had coyotes, a fisher (a big weasel, they call them fisher-cats here)) and a bobcat (right in the middle of he day) in our yard (5 ac) in the middle of the day when we lived here full time (in Charlotte (VT). At camp here in Colchester we've had a fox with pups, plenty of deer, skunks and raccoons, garter snakes, and even a moose (in early Spring). It's a regular "Wild America" here.

[TC Chris]

At camp here in Colchester we've had a fox with pups, plenty of deer, skunks and raccoons, garter snakes, and even a moose (in early Spring). It's a regular "Wild America" here.

One night I was approaching my back door steps at the exact same moment that Mr. Skunk was aimed at the same destination. We were equally surprised, I suspect, but I made greater haste to escape, falling down in the process. Mr. Skunk decided to change course also and I got inside after an appropriate interval. Ever since, when leaving the house at night, I always turn on the light and have a look-see. And whenever I'm moving between the alley and the back door in the dark, I jangle keys and make other noise to warn visitors.

In my yard I've seen the skunk, and possums, raccoons, porcupines, rabbits, chipmunks, gray and red squirrels, and deer. All are welcome except the deer, which in Michigan are just a species of vermin. They eat everything. I'll bet there are owls, foxes, or coyotes because somebody keeps the rabbit population from exploding and the chipmunks are gone.

Chris Campbell

[hermitcrab]

I know at my house I had a mole problem, and tried every trick in the book/internet to rid myself and my yard of them ... nothing worked it got so bad walking around the yard was like walking on sponges ... then my wife who actively feeds every bird for 100 miles started putting out critter food in the yard , so now we got possums, chipmunks, groundhogs, etc.. they show up on the deck at night getting their share... but what I noticed is when all these other critters showed up... the moles vanished... not sure if some are natural enemies of them but I don't care ... they have vamoosed from my yard...

[TC Chris]

Last year I had a terrific mole problem too. They eat grubs and for those like me who are not exactly lawn fetishists, the lawn (notice I don't say "the grass") is full of grubs. This year they seem to have diminished. Maybe the possums and skunks are digging up enough grubs to reduce the food supply. They are a PITA>

Chris Campbell