JADIP

Second Ice and Snow Event.  We have had two winter snow/ice events in the last several weeks.  The second was touched upon briefly in the previous post (and seen much better in the second video in that post).  That was the first week of March. 

Female cardinal below the feeders looking for something to eat...what is all of this white stuff??

Downy woodpecker going after some peanuts.  There is snow on the leaves in the background and even a little on the top of the seeds inside the feeder.

First Ice Event.  The first ice event was in late February.  After clearing off the ice from my car from that first event, I discovered that my windshield wipers would not work.  I therefore took my car to our local mechanic (our super wonderful and trusted Goodyear dealer) on February 25, i.e. two weeks ago.  He discovered I had rodent problems and the rodent had chewed the wire to the windshield wipers.  He fixed the problem easily and we were good to go.

Fox Urine.  What should I do to prevent a repeat?  Since we all assumed it was rats or mice, the mechanic suggested fox urine from Bass Pro Shop.  Off we went to Bass Pro Shop.  We asked in the front and they directed us to their "Scents Aisle".  Obviously I am not a hunter.  I did not realize there was an entire collection of such things and special holders to put them in.  We were soon out the door with a vial of fox urine and a special holder to hang in the front of my car.

Life returns to normal, or so I thought.  I have made numerous trips in my car, including trips to Denton.  On Tuesday I thought I might have heard squeaking noises as I returned home, but assumed I was just hearing things.  However, upon returning from the mall this afternoon, there definitely were some curious squeaking sounds.  After taking our purchases into the house we thought we would check under the hood to see if we could see any problems.

Home sweet home for our crazy neighborhood squirrels.  What a shock when we lifted the hood to find an enormous nest.  Shock was the operative word, although I was also quite impressed.  It was a very impressive nest.  I have no idea how the adult squirrels were able to get all of those large sticks and branches into my engine.

Upon closer scrutiny we saw multiple baby animals inside.  At first we weren't sure what they were.  Again, we were assuming we were dealing with rats.  However, we soon realized they were squirrels.  We could see three in the nest.

We called our pest control company.  They sent someone out, but they could not do anything.  I then called the City of Lewisville Animal Control, who said they would send someone out.

While we were waiting for them to arrive, one of the babies made a break for it and ended up outside the nest. 

He was rather wobbly on his legs, but hung out in the trough below the windshield wipers then eventually crawled back into the nest.

We watched his movements from inside the house since we did not want to miss the Animal Control people.  However, we started hearing more loud squeaking/squealing.  At first, since it was so loud, we were afraid it was yet another nest in the attic.  We finally determined it was a fourth little one under the car.  Given his wobbly attempts to walk, I knew he wasn't going to go too far but I wasn't sure what he would do if I tried to corner him.

By this time Animal Control arrived.  She was able to corral all four of them, albeit with some effort. Wow could they squeal!  She thought they were at least six weeks old.  Based on this website I am guessing they may be more like 7-8 weeks old.  In any case, they are old enough to go to a rescue center.  That is where they were headed after they left us.  We wish them well, just someplace far far away.

Avoiding a repeat performance.  We never did see any adult squirrels during all of this chaos.  The little guys looked healthy and well-fed, so we felt certain Momma would be returning sometime soon.  With that in mind, I washed down the top surfaces under the hood with Lysol cleaner.  (I hope squirrels do not like Lysol.)  Although it obviously did not do any good, the fox urine is still in place. Finally, my car is now parked out front, at least for a few days.  Hopefully all of that will be enough to convince Momma squirrel to find alternative housing.

In any case, JADIP...just another day in paradise. The adventures never cease.