Winter Homes

It’s the time of year when animals that are supposed to be living outside start to think that our homes would be a good place to set up camp for a while. Warmth and food are the motivating factors. In fact, as I write this column late at night from home (pushing the boundaries of my deadline), I am listening to what sounds like elephants bowling in my newly insulated attic.Over the past several days, I have been watching curiously the activity of two red squirrels. One climbs into a black walnut tree at the edge of my driveway and drops the remaining walnuts from the tree to the ground. Then the second squirrel grabs each fallen nut one-by-one in its mouth, runs along the brick wall and disappears behind my house only to return again empty-handed, or “empty-mouthed” in this case. This is repeated over and over and over again, and is quite amusing as some of the nuts are bigger than the squirrel’s head.All this time it didn’t occur to me that instead of finding a hollow tree to cache their food, they had found my attic, and judging by the racket, they have quite a stash up there. I wonder if the two tiny squirrels are working together or if the one in the tree is expecting a bounty on the ground only to find nothing upon its descent.Here at the Audubon Center we get a lot of calls regarding what to do about animals living under porches, in barns, basements and attics. Most of the time, the calls come in the spring after the animals (opossums, skunks, raccoons, foxes, squirrels, etc.) are already feeding their young. It is very difficult, and in many cases illegal, to relocate animals especially when they are caring for dependant babies.Prior exclusion is the key to avoiding problems later, especially in older houses. Look for holes in roof soffits and loose basement windows and doors for example. Hardware cloth works great to seal larger voids like spaces under decks and porches and it also deters persistent animals (like red squirrels) from chewing through their favorite access points.Tomorrow, when my little red squirrels are out foraging, I will find and repair the hole they are using to access my attic and encourage them to find another, more appropriate place to call their winter home. I may even collect the nuts that they had stashed and put them back at the base of the walnut tree. We wouldn’t want all that work to go to waste after all! Scott Heth is the director of Audubon Sharon and can be reached at sheth@audubon.org, (subject line: Nature Notes).

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