So you think you'd like to live in the woods... (totally OT)

Redwolf · Post by **Redwolf** » Thu Feb 20, 2003 4:09 pm

Living in a forest occasionally presents some interesting challenges, but this was a new one on me...

I went down to my car the other day to find both my side-view mirrors absolutely smothered in bird poop. I don't mean a few splotches here and there...I mean total slime! Now, when you park under several large fir trees, you have to figure you're going to see plenty of bird poop, along with fir resin, needles, and other assorted detritus, but what was weird about this was that it was ONLY the mirrors and their holders that were...er...coated. The rest of the car was relatively clean. It was so odd, I actually took a closer look to make sure it was really bird poop...I thought maybe some neighborhood kids had played a nasty trick with some Silly String! I cleaned it off and went on my way. The next day I went down to my car and sure enough -- once again, I'd been slimed.

I finally figured it out yesterday evening. As I was getting into my car, a little Oregon Junco swooped down out of the nearest fir and started attacking my driver's side mirror. He evidently thinks the "bird" in the mirror is a rival Junco, and he's demonstrating his opinion of the situation in the most graphic manner possible! He's so bold...he didn't even seem to mind that I was sitting just inches from his "battle"!

Poor little guy! I shouldn't laugh at him, but it is kind of funny...my nice clean car with its...er...decorated mirrors! I guess there's nothing for it but be sure to carry paper towels and Windex until mating season's over.

Ah, living with wildlife! This is almost as wild as the time the neighbor's cat chased a skunk under my back deck....

Redwolf

Steven · Post by **Steven** » Thu Feb 20, 2003 4:16 pm

Redwolf, why don't you try covering up the mirrors when you park the car at home? Any sort of (non-transparent) bag should do, and you could secure them with rubber bands. Putting those on and taking them off would be a lot faster (and less gross) than doing that cleaning routine every day....

Just a thought,
Steven

Redwolf · Post by **Redwolf** » Thu Feb 20, 2003 4:18 pm

I will probably have to do something like that, now I know what is happening. I'm not really worried about cleaning the mirrors (it's not a major deal), but I don't want the bird to hurt himself.

Redwolf

markv · Post by **markv** » Thu Feb 20, 2003 4:24 pm

So do you get the annual fall mouse migration into your house as well? Every fall as it starts to get consistantly cold they start heading for cover. We had a squirrel who developed a taste for the seals on my windshield. The only thing that eventually worked was spritzing with cayenne pepper solution. The wierd part was that a squirrel survived the coyotes and foxes.

Mark V.

Post by **Nanohedron** » Thu Feb 20, 2003 5:08 pm

Sooo...I suppose that's how birds give each other "The Bird"?

N, how tweet it is

Redwolf · Post by **Redwolf** » Thu Feb 20, 2003 5:44 pm

On 2003-02-20 17:24, markv wrote:
So do you get the annual fall mouse migration into your house as well? Every fall as it starts to get consistantly cold they start heading for cover. We had a squirrel who developed a taste for the seals on my windshield. The only thing that eventually worked was spritzing with cayenne pepper solution. The wierd part was that a squirrel survived the coyotes and foxes.

Mark V.

Nope...no mice that I've seen sign of. Our house isn't terribly hospitable to them, however, as there's no space between the interior and exterior walls (the cat, the poodle and the rats are something of a deterrent too, I imagine).

When we lived in NC we had a little green tree snake who lived in our mailbox during the summer...used to freak the mailman out big time (he was herpephobic)! On the upside, we got our mail delivered to our front porch every day!

Nanohedron...

(grin)

Redwolf

brianormond · Post by **brianormond** » Fri Feb 21, 2003 1:11 am

-My soft-hearted Ontario grandfather built a winter mouse hotel in his Bayfield basement, caught the deer mice around his property in a Havahart trap each fall, and put them up rent-free until spring when they were released. Pretty good deal for a mouse.
His only complaint was when they started families without asking so much as a by-your-leave first.

-B.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: brianormond on 2003-02-21 02:23 ]</font>

Sandy Jasper · Post by **Sandy Jasper** » Fri Feb 21, 2003 1:37 am

Brian!

I love the story of your grandfather. He sounds really sweet!

My Mom is crazy about animals too, we all are but she is the worst. When we were kids she had a chicken in a box under the kitchen table. The horse had stepped on her leg and broken it. Louigi wanted to serve the chicken up for supper but mom woundn't hear of it. She bandaged her leg up and named her Peg Leg. Peggy eventually died of old age about 10 years later.

Redwolf,

You have a cat named Jonah just like we do and now I see you also have a poodle. We have a Multi Poo named Declan. The cat is twice his size and is constantly kicking his butt. Aside from that they are great friends. Strange how far away we all live but how much we can have in common!

S.J.

Wombat · Post by **Wombat** » Fri Feb 21, 2003 2:34 am

On 2003-02-20 17:18, Redwolf wrote:
I will probably have to do something like that, now I know what is happening. I'm not really worried about cleaning the mirrors (it's not a major deal), but I don't want the bird to hurt himself.

Redwolf

I'm having a bit of a giggle trying to picture this battle, but wouldn't he be more likely to hurt himself if you *don't* do something?

kkrell · Post by **kkrell** » Fri Feb 21, 2003 2:46 am

On 2003-02-20 17:09, Redwolf wrote:
Living in a forest occasionally presents some interesting challenges, but this was a new one on me...

I finally figured it out yesterday evening. As I was getting into my car, a little Oregon Junco swooped down out of the nearest fir and started attacking my driver's side mirror. He evidently thinks the "bird" in the mirror is a rival Junco, and he's demonstrating his opinion of the situation in the most graphic manner possible! He's so bold...he didn't even seem to mind that I was sitting just inches from his "battle"!

When I had my guitar built, I drove up to the luthier's property near Grass Valley, CA. I had car trouble an hour's drive away, so he had to come down & pick me up. The moment we drove up, he pulled the hubcaps off his car and set them upside down near each wheel. He showed me why. Put the hubcap on, and a bird immediately flew down & began attacking its image in the chrome. Just get in the habit of covering up your mirrors.

Kevin Krell

vaporlock · Post by **vaporlock** » Fri Feb 21, 2003 3:30 am

My life's dream was realized when I was finally able to purchase a '66 Mustang with pony interior and factory air conditioning. The paint was kinda chalkie white, but I was still sooo happy to have a collector's item vehicle in pretty good shape.

It was my second vehicle, so I had to park it on the street under some huge elm trees. A month or so later, I noticed a huge flock of crows up in the elm trees had totally spattered my pride and joy with purple (dark, deep, glorious purple)...poop. I ran for the bucket and sponge....it wouldn't come off. It was like a wine stain in carpeting. The oxidized white paint on the Mustang just soaked this purple stuff up. I had no place else to park the vehicle, so the purple staining was cumulative. Within a couple of months my pride and joy looked like it had been attacked by the 1st Infantry Division wielding purple paint-ball machine guns.

My dream finally died when I realized that a 30 year old car, no matter how cool it looked (prior to the purple paint war) was just going to nickel and dime me to death....plus, it's hard to look cool driving a car splattered with purple bird poop, even if it's a '66 Mustang. So I sold it to somebody who owned a paint and body shop

As far as mice go...well, I'm sure that they wish there were more folks out there just like me and Brian's Grandpa. I haven't gone so far as to build a hotel for them, but, with the assistance of my faithful Golden Retriever, Bailey, we managed to track them all down, pups and all, and relocate them to the garbage disposal. No...just kidding...to a field a couple of miles from here complete with enough dog food to last them the winter (that was Bailey's idea).

Spiders, on the other hand, get no mercy!

Walden · Post by **Walden** » Fri Feb 21, 2003 7:09 am

The woods,

Lorenzo · Post by **Lorenzo** » Fri Feb 21, 2003 8:20 am

For years I lived out in a wilderness area in a log cabin. A porqupine began gnawing on the knots in the logs all night.

Then it discovered my bicycle and gnawed the rubber tires like a beaver trying to fall a tree, then it started doing the same thing to my truck tires (something in the rubber was pretty tasty).

So, one night I'd had enough of all this gnawing. I went outside, it was a full moon, and chased this seemingly sluggish porqupine across the meadow, as far away as the eye could see, even to the nether-nether lands if need be.

Guess what? Did you know that a big fat porqupine can out-run humans? (and I was a track star just out of HS)

Dragon · Post by **Dragon** » Fri Feb 21, 2003 3:24 pm

I love other living things. While people may find the things creatures do annoying or find them "creepy" I love them. I would live no ware else but the woods. I have two pet snakes, and I am not bothered by spiders, frogs, etc. While bird poop on the car might be yikky I rather live in a place where there are still birds. And I must say if creatures (even the "creepy" ones) bother you there are plenty of citys that are nearly void of wildlife that you can choose from to live in. I once heard of a state park that recived a comment that said the park was lovely, but they should spray to get rid of insects. *SIGH*. Makes ya wonder.

OutOfBreath · Post by **OutOfBreath** » Fri Feb 21, 2003 3:32 pm

On 2003-02-21 04:30, vaporlock wrote:
My dream finally died when I realized that a 30 year old car, no matter how cool it looked (prior to the purple paint war) was just going to nickel and dime me to death....

Actually, my primer-gray 1970 Chevy truck is the most reliable Chevy I've ever owned (which kind of isn't saying much, as I've had nothing but problems from every other GM car I've ever owned).

Of course, I put about three-grand up front into engine, transmission, and brake work so I guess it oughta be pretty trouble free

JOhn