the week before Halloween
 

Next to "the Lake" we have not had a killing frost yet. I found damn floating bird
feathers in the water and went nuts thinking there was a dead morning dove fouling my
koi pond. So I ripped all the netting off to uncover the pond. by this time of year
the water celery has grown out over the netting and covers the back half of the pond.
http://tinyurl.com/5jo6o7 so I had to cut all the water celery with DH hauling at
the netting. we opened it up and DH started scooping with the net, but the water had
gotten pretty yellowed and we couldnt see to the bottom. NO DEAD BIRD. over last
week I drained about 600 gallons one day, added it back the next. did this twice so
far. NO DEAD BIRD. no more feather. beast must have landed on celery to get a
drink of water from fall and got feet caught and went nuts leaving feathers floating
around. sheesh. now I see some white patches on a couple koi and have no idea where
my PP is.

anyway, this weekend I was supposed to get the cyperus out of the veggie filter and
into a tub in the heated garage. didnt happen. it looks like we have another week
without a freeze. have to find the works to put over the pond. Ingrid

the week before Halloween
 

On Mon, 20 Oct 2008 06:38:14 EDT, wrote:

koi pond. So I ripped all the netting off to uncover the pond. by this time of year
the water celery has grown out over the netting and covers the back half of the pond.
http://tinyurl.com/5jo6o7 so I had to cut all the water celery with DH hauling at
the netting.

Sounds like a chore, but glad you didn't find a bird.

Got a message yesterday from a lady in the neighborhood a few streets up
from mine. The raccoon(s) were visiting her this summer also so she netted.
The other night the raccoon(s) ripped the netting and took her last and
largest butterfly koi and left evidence that it was quite the struggle.

So far, hot wire is working well here, as long as they don't visit during
the day light hours. Course now.... I have it screened, hot wired and the
motion sprinkler still on. Triple protection. ~ jan
------------
Zone 7a, SE Washington State
Ponds: www.jjspond.us

the week before Halloween
 

jan - I forgot to tell you I saw one of our bandit friends
flattened down on Columbia Drive... may he rest in pieces.

k :-)

the week before Halloween
 

On Thu, 23 Oct 2008 09:47:32 EDT, kathy wrote:

jan - I forgot to tell you I saw one of our bandit friends
flattened down on Columbia Drive... may he rest in pieces.
k :-)

Yes, I saw him, assuming he was the same one he was gone by afternoon.... I
wonder who picked him up and not the stinky skunk 12 feet away? (Course by
that time the skunk was pretty well grounded into the roadway.)

Back when I was a kid the Wildlife people told my dad that they could give
a pretty accurate count of the # of pheasants in an area by the # of road
kill/mile. I've seen a few Rocky's hit locally lately which by using the
same calculations means there are a whole lot more out there. And now
they're ripping thru nets!

And it didn't stop the visits here as the next night after seeing the Rocky
Roadkill I had digging in the yard. I have plans of extending the hot wire
when the vegetation dies back. ~ jan
------------
Zone 7a, SE Washington State
Ponds: www.jjspond.us

the week before Halloween
 

~ jan wrote:

On Thu, 23 Oct 2008 09:47:32 EDT, kathy wrote:

jan - I forgot to tell you I saw one of our bandit friends
flattened down on Columbia Drive... may he rest in pieces.
k :-)

Yes, I saw him, assuming he was the same one he was gone by afternoon....
I wonder who picked him up and not the stinky skunk 12 feet away? (Course
by that time the skunk was pretty well grounded into the roadway.)

Back when I was a kid the Wildlife people told my dad that they could give
a pretty accurate count of the # of pheasants in an area by the # of road
kill/mile. I've seen a few Rocky's hit locally lately which by using the
same calculations means there are a whole lot more out there. And now
they're ripping thru nets!

LOL. You have to consider though that Racoons are smart. Not terribly
smart about roads, admittedly, but generally _very_ smart. Pheasants,
otoh, are really, really, stupid. I hit one once - the stupid thing was on
the shoulder of the road, and when we came by it flew _into_ the car,
instead of away from...

So probably, you could compute the number of racoons from the roadkill, but
definitely not using the _same_ calculation as for pheasants.

Our local most common roadkill is porcupines (thankfully - I have a personal
beef, as I love dogs and trees, and they are really destructive of both).
I'm not even sure they're actually stupid, but their entire lives have told
them that nothing can hurt them - so they assume cars will avoid them.
otoh, of the other wildlife we see around here, I've never seen a dead deer
(that might actually be because they get immediately dressed out and
freezer-ized - you _should_ get some recompense for the expense of fixing
the car), one fox (quite common both in the urban and rural areas) and one
coyote (howling on the hill as I write), but lots of racoons and skunks.
--
derek