{"id":39301,"date":"2022-10-14T20:16:18","date_gmt":"2022-10-15T04:16:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sparselysageandtimely.com\/blog\/?p=39301"},"modified":"2022-10-15T08:17:41","modified_gmt":"2022-10-15T16:17:41","slug":"birds-birdseed-roof-rats-foxes-raccoons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/?p=39301","title":{"rendered":"Birds, birdseed & roof rats, foxes & raccoons"},"content":{"rendered":"

The San Francisco Chronicle<\/em><\/strong> on Thursday carried a front-page story headlined, ‘Birdseed Lady to blame for rat swarms?’ The Chronicle<\/em> reported a woman, who “appears to be experiencing mental illness,” daily leaves “mounds of birdseed throughout [the] commercial corridor” of the Glen Park neighborhood.<\/p>\n

In doing so, she appears to be “fomenting the area’s formidable rat and pigeon problems.” As the article noted, city government still hasn’t figured out how to deal with her even though “city law forbids spreading birdseed in public places.”<\/p>\n

The problem is more than esthetic. “The issue exploded into public view this month when health inspectors temporarily shuttered Canyon Market, Glen Park’s posh and popular grocery store, after finding gnawed pasta bags, rat droppings, and other evidence of a severe rodent infestation.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I’ve seen the pattern on a small scale<\/strong> at Mitchell cabin. The birdseed Lynn and I put on our deck daily for our feathered neighbors also draws a handful of roof rats.<\/p>\n

The birds such as this towhee act as if the roof rats were just other birds and are quite content to eat alongside them.<\/p>\n

The birds also share their bath with the rats, who like to take sips from it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So far the roof rats are not an insurmountable problem although they do nibble on flowers Lynn planted in our garden and \u2014 worse yet \u2014 on the wiring for her car’s engine.<\/p>\n

The rats are amazingly predictable<\/strong>. We tend to put out seed around 5:30 p.m. daily, and the roof rats show up around 6:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n

Among the other trends in wildlife<\/strong> around Mitchell cabin are changes in the fox community, which had mostly kept out of sight during the past couple of years. Foxes, nonetheless, made their presence known by frequently peeing on my morning Chronicle<\/em>. It’s all about marking territory. Thank goodness subscriptions are delivered in plastic bags.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Last week I spotted two foxes together on our deck until they were scared off when two young raccoons got into a noisy tiff.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n

A young man<\/strong> in town told me he wants to wear a pest-control uniform for Halloween. I told him to gopher it.<\/p>\n

Have you ever wondered<\/strong> why cats eat fur balls. They do it because they love a good gag.<\/p>\n

And why do bears<\/strong> have hairy coats? Fur protection, of course.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The San Francisco Chronicle on Thursday carried a front-page story headlined, ‘Birdseed Lady to blame for rat swarms?’ The Chronicle reported a woman, who “appears to be experiencing mental illness,” daily leaves “mounds of birdseed throughout [the] commercial corridor” of the Glen Park neighborhood. In doing so, she appears to be “fomenting the area’s formidable […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":623,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6,10,11],"tags":[1572,36,1573,30],"class_list":["post-39301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-news","category-personal","category-west-marin-nature","category-wildlife","tag-birdseed","tag-foxes","tag-raccoonsd","tag-roof-rats"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/623"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39301"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39319,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39301\/revisions\/39319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}