How do outside critters survive in the winter?

Submitted by The View staff reporter Jerry LaVaute:

We have a detached garage at my home, and it has long been our habit that, as we arrive home and pull into the driveway, the passenger disembarks from the vehicle before the driver pulls the vehicle into the garage.

Having unloaded the passenger, the driver pulls the vehicle into the garage, and joins the passenger a few moments later, waiting by the door of the house.

The wait outside the door is only a few moments, but these days it’s long enough to recognize and to feel the bitter cold outside, particularly after sunset, and to wonder again as you look into the backyard, how the small creatures who live back there survive in these conditions.

My wife Jan and I suspect that many of these outside critters struggle through such a bitter winter, and that many do not survive.

As you look into the backyard in the daylight, the number of footprints in the snow are a marvel.
There is not much ground back there that isn’t covered by footprints, suggesting a lot of activity out there each night. It’s another world out there, interesting to imagine.

We try to keep the wild animals fed – there’s a birdfeeder in the backyard that we fill every other day or so, and the animals use it often. There’s been everything up there from birds to squirrels to raccoons.

And when I’m feeling up to it, I walk down the steps to the west of the house, down the hill over the snow-covered ground, among the myriad of footprints, and walk carefully across the bridge to spread whole corn for the ducks and others to eat.

I’m encouraged to do this by the sight of a duck digging beneath the snow with its beak to reach the corn. Problem is, when he sees me coming, he flies away. I hope he’ll return. We also hang a suet cake out in the yard; it lasts a week or two.

The Belleville Mill has long supplied the food for our animals, domestic and wild. Good people, good merchandise, good service, good prices.

A few months ago, we began to spot a black cat that hung around. It sometimes waited near the birdfeeder, presumably preying on the birds that fed there.

We let it be, and my wife saw the cat again recently. We think it may be living below our deck – the dogs spend too much time sniffing the surface of the deck to cause us to believe otherwise.
Our live and let live attitude doesn’t extend to mice. You’ve got to stop somewhere.

I’ve set mousetraps near where the animal food is stored. These are a new mousetrap design that doesn’t use real food like cheese or peanut butter, but instead features a bright yellow piece of plastic that is elevated at a 45-degree angle as the trap is set.

The manufacturer claims it attracts mice into the trap. But I’m here to say that, when I got into the birdseed bin the other day, I found two live mice at the bottom of the container.

As resourceful as mice can be, I guess they were unable to scale back up the three feet or so of smooth plastic inside the bin.

After several tries, I trapped them in a small container that I use to scoop the seed, and threw them into the backyard.

Problem was, they immediately sought cover, and headed back toward the garage. I suspect it’s only a matter of time before they find their way back inside, and into the food.

Meanwhile, in the garage, the newfangled mousetrap sat within inches of the birdseed container, still set, unsprung. I’m gonna have to begin looking around for the older mousetrap technology that worked.