LOL freezengirl. I'd take the bear poop over piles of moose poop. Hummm...which would do more damage to a garden? Bears at least don't tend to care about the garden itself. They sure like the compost and trash though. My cat does a good job of keeping rodents down for me. I just wish he didn't feel the need to bring the bodies back inside as a present. Although the bodies are better then when he brings them inside alive. He does this pretty often. I think he just likes playing with them...what is better than a toy the moves and squeaks on it's own? He does usually catch and eventually kill it but I've seen him carrying around mice alive just to drop them and then chase after them. He usually does this in the middle of the night and in our bedroom for some reason. When we're woken up by the cat pouncing and running like crazy or trying to fit his whole body under our dresser it usually means he found himself a live toy. As for vole damage and trees. Get some small mesh hardware cloth and wrap it around the trunks of the trees. It'll keep the voles (and bunnies) from girdling them. Although they usually only do this in the winter, they tunnel under the snow and eat the bark as a winter food source. Once the grass and other plants greens up they prefer that. They likely won't bother the shrubs and trees again until next winter.

Ohh yeah they do! ;) The hornworm is bigger than many mice. Search 'hornworm' here to see pics of many of them. Dave

We did look at the ledge during the day when we took this picture, but there is nothing above it except for the overhang. The only place they could be hanging out is right on the ledge. We've noticed a few scattered droppings on the floor of our porch that appear to have fallen off, but we've cleaned them up and there isn't any fresh droppings for several days and then they appear again. Whatever is hanging out, seems to come and go.

We had lots of barred owls at my last home -- I loved hearing them in the night. I never heard that particular sound but often heard them calling back and forth (check the "pair caterwauling" from your link) -- I always thought they sounded like monkeys! Here are a couple pics I got of them -- they are often out in the day so you might see them. Second one is a juvenile. ETA -- actually, that second owl might not be a barred owl, he might be an eastern screech owl. I was just noticing that his markings and beak color are different from a barred owl's. I took that picture on the Fourth of July when we were outside lighting small fireworks with our boys and I think we must have startled him! The first guy was just sitting there watching me mow the lawn for the longest time one day, it was funny. He let me get quite close.