now we know why charlie was so fat

[CountryEscape]

JW, yes, we had moles when I lived in the woods when I was married. I fought them tooth and nail. A friend had them worse than I've ever seen, but he refused to do anthing to get rid of them short of trying to drown them ... which never works. He would not put anything on the ground to kill their food source ... grubs ... as he didn't want to kill the worms. I told him to stop complaining then, if he wasn't going to get rid of them. LOL I never saw anyone try so many different things, he even tried the smoke bombs. It may have sent the ones packing that were there at the moment, but others came the next day, or they came back. He had maybe 50 mounds to mow through every time he mowed. It was awful, but I got tired of trying to convince him to try the stuff to get rid of the grubs. LOL
I think if one mole got to my property, I would be in trouble, but so far not a sign of any so I'm happy about that!

 

[HARO]

Hmmm... geese bombing squirrels... may be able to work something out! Anyone ever hear of Father Goose? He taught geese to migrate by following his ultralite plane. Someone made a movie about it a few years back.
John

 

[CountryEscape]

Yep, saw the movie. Many years ago, when our farm pond first filled, we got a few ducks, and when I went out to feed the ducks with my kids, there was an "ugly duckling" among them. Thought the neighbors put it there as a joke. Turns out it was a Canadian goose about half grown, very ugly, but grew very beautiful! He, of course, had no idea how to fly, and our ducks were no help. We locked him up in a pen for safety for the winter along with the ducks and domestic geese, and the 2nd year, a female stayed with him for about a month, but gave up and flew the rest of the way south. She did, however, come back the following year and stayed longer. Was very cute watching her teach him to fly! She would go up, he would follow, but bail out about half the height of our trees in the woods. She kept trying though, and by the end of the summer, he left with her to make the trek north. I believe they came back to nest the following year, but my ex moved their nest, saying it was too close to the boat dock. Geesh .... anyhow, I don't live there anymore LOL But it was a fun time. We called him Canada ...

 

[HARO]

Father Goose, AKA Bill Leishman, lives about a ten minute drive from us, and our former next-door neighbour works for him. When Bill isn't teaching geese or whooping cranes to migrate, he's a commercial artist, designing large sculptures out of metal bits and pieces. When he goes on his migration flights, our neighbour drives a large camper van along the route as a base vehicle. Wouldn't mind having a job like that!
John

 

[CountryEscape]

Oh, I had no idea he actually is still doing that! I thought it was a one-time thing, when some babies were found and parents were killed! That's really cool. Does he make the trek every year, then, John?

 

[HARO]

I haven't talked to my neighbour in a few years (marital split), but he may be getting a bit too mature for that kind of trip. I'll have to ask around and find out.
John

 

[addy1]

We had not seen the ground hogs, except the one for a few days now, figured mom was moving them on. Well yesterday must have been play day, they spent the day on our deck playing. So darn cute. If you look you can see one is almost double the size of the others, we are calling it fatty!

Here are a lot of videos of them, quite a few of all four, which we have not seen for a week or so.

 

[addy1]

 

[addy1]

 

[addy1]

 

[j.w]

Wow you took a lot of video on those cute little ones! I was enjoying watching them and tried to watch 3 vids at once and then my computer froze up so I shut it down and went in the family room on my netbook to finish. That was fun watching them. I see they are better at sitting up now and getting braver but boy they sure are fast to head down their hole if something startles them. Thanks for taking all the time to put those up for us addy! I sure am gonna miss them when they head off to new homes :sad:

 

[CountryEscape]

They are so adorable, Addy, so unique that they chose your deck, you with the video cameras everywhere! Thanks for sharing your baby hogs with us!

 

[addy1]

mom will be moving them out soon, they are out feeding in the garden a lot now. We are going to finish the deck, but leave a trap door so we can pull it during baby time see if we get more next year. If my pup is out I have to cover the hole, she fits right down it

 

[j.w]

Neat that you are going to let them have the spot each year. Don't want Missy going down that hole to Wonderland tho!

 

[addy1]

Neat that you are going to let them have the spot each year. Don't want Missy going down that hole to Wonderland tho!

She is one hunter, nose to the ground following the scents, if she sees something nothing stops her. The mama ghog could really hurt her, the babies run. She is smaller than the babies so they have a size advantage! I scanned the tapes they are still here as of this am.