My flower bed is now so full (thanks to winter sowing) that beneficial critters are taking up residence. I noticed a garter snake just the other day. Although I am terrified of them, harmless or not, I don't want my kids to have my idiotic fears... I called the kids over and touched the tail. It didn't move. Although I was a bit relieved that it may be dead, I was also saddened that this moment may not be teachable. So I donned a gardening glove and nabbed a stick. I grabbed the tail and as I was lifting the snake from a bush, it started to jiggle. Although I did not scream, I could not keep touching the thing. Whatever I thought I would teach my kids went instantly out the window. I had to corral my kids indoors and would've had a cocktail if it hadn't been 9am. I now must wear shoes and socks when I weed that bed; not such a bad deal considering we have thistle!! After reading this post, I'm horrified that the snake could eat the resident toad!! My 4 year old recently made two toad houses for our fattening buddy. How would I explain a snake stalking the toad?? 4 years old is too young to comprehend evolution; I've tried. I also recently acquired praying mantis babies and think the snake would love those as a meal.

They are really active right now at our place, too. Every year a pair of Carolina wrens make a nest in an old decorative watering can that I hung on a trellis just past our front porch. I had noticed the bird was sitting on her eggs just about 4 days ago. Well, we were relaxing after yard-work on Saturday on the porch. I noticed a lizard ran very quickly almost under my chair and up the wall and even commented, "there must be a snake around somewhere", happened to look and there was a black snake's head sticking out of the watering can. I exclaimed "there's a snake in the bird's nest", my husband went over and dumped it out, couldn't believe the size of this thing that was all wadded up inside this really small space. Anyway, no sign of the brooding bird since so I'm afraid the whole family has been wiped out.

Well, a power loss caused me to lose the post I was typing detailing the recent lions in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Kansas, and Oklahoma. Anyone can read cougarnet.org to get the background behind them and the current situation. The difficulty around making official statements about cats being here can be shown by looking at the one best-known confirmation here in Oklahoma. It was a tagged cat that was born in the Black Hills of S. Dakota and managed to travel here in a few months time looking for its own territory (young male). It was killed by a train in northern Oklahoma after it's location had been recently pinpointed in North Dakota. What are authorities supposed to say to accurately provide information to Oklahomans and Kansans after that. The official statement is that we have occasional ones pass through but no resident ones except some possibly starting to make permanent homes in the far NW. There have been a few confirmation in other parts of the state that were not reported but they were more likely to be from the exotic pet trade than native, wild ones based on the evidence, so the wildlife people do not publicize them. The guy that killed the one in Kansas last year did so illegally, but got in almost no trouble because he cooperated and provided the remains to the wildlife people who were so eager to confirm the first one proven there in many years that they didn't press the issue. In Oklahoma btw you can kill any lion that is posing a danger to you or any livestock you own. It is perfectly legal. In fact, if you call the game warden in my local area to say you have one posing a danger to you or your animals, you will be told to kill it if needed and then call them back after you have. I'm sure there are many sightings in Oklahoma that are accurate and not mistaken identity, but the vast majority are incorrect. This is obvious by the fact that more black ones are reported than any other color, and there is no large black cat that exists anywhere near here except for the ones (not cougars) imported to this country as part of the exotic pet trade. That is absolute FACT. Even these are now heavily regulated so they are almost non-existent. Sorry, I have been out of town and didn't get a chance to read this thread the last few days. No hard feelings from this end. I just want people to know the facts of the situation. There is a big difference between being mistaken and lying. I am mistaken a lot, but I don't lie. Nobody is saying that most people who say they have seen cougars are liars, it is just mistaken identity. The truth should not offend anyone, and eventually when we start seeing evidence of resident populations, I will as happy as anyone. I think it is starting, but I think our population density combined with their needed size of home range will make it almost impossible for them to increase in population very much in most of Oklahoma. After all, between 20% and 30% of all the highly studied cougars in the remote Black Hills area were killed by autos over a three year period. BTW, I killed another pygmy rattlesnake last week!

Chickadees like to excavate their own holes however if you want to put something inside the box for them to take out it would not be sawdust, a few tiny woodchips yes, sawdust no. Plus filling it to the hole would probably discourage anything from nesting there. I have heard that some Dees will not readily nest in a box with a 1 1/8 inch hole. Some start with a 1 1/2 hole and add a reducer once the Dee is committed to the box. Dees do prefer the nestboxes to be by trees vs in the open where Blues boxes usually are. I would worry about squirrels though. Oh and yes raccoons can jump. I have the wobbling stovepipe baffles and they do work for raccoons. Good luck! The Dees by me prefer to excavate old woodpecker holes to my nestboxes, crazy little birds!! Donna