The damn ground squirrels ATE MY BLUEBERRIES!
I had noticed two very cute juvenile ground squirrels in the back yard recently, probably attracted by the birdseed scattered under the bird feeders by the House Finches and Sparrows, who spit out the seed they don't like. The ground feeders like the Towhees and the Mourning Doves generally clean up the seed, but the squirrels had been getting some of it, too.
Then I noticed that the ripening blueberries were starting to disappear, so I picked off the remaining ripe ones. Then the next day even those that weren't ripe were gone. It looks like we'll have to build a varmint enclosure to keep the berries ripe until we can get them.
Monday night one of the women in our flameworking bead class was delayed by a snake emergency; her family had found a four foot long snake in the yard and she had to deal with it. They originally thought it was a Western Rattlesnake, but she determined that it was actually a Gopher Snake, Pituophis catenifer. The Gopher Snakes' blotchy coloration makes them look a lot like rattlers and they actually make a hissing noise when disturbed. They may also vibrate their tails and, in dry vegetation, that can sound like the rattle noise a rattlesnake makes. I guess these defensive features may protect them from other predators, but humans sometimes mistake them for rattlesnakes and kill them.
They live on small rodents, so we may have to invite one into the yard to take out the squirrels. However, they have also been known to raid bird nests and even eat the birds themselves. So, in view of the pleasure we take from the birds we have invited to the feeder, maybe it's not a good idea to acquire a snake.
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