How to help wildlife in our wildlife-friendly garden
Injured deer came to our wildlife garden looking for help
It started with a frantic call from my wife. I think she was crying.
I was at work and helpless to do anything about it at the time.
It ended days later on a cold winter night tramping through the forest late into the evening with a very dedicated veterinarian, a couple of volunteers, a local newspaper writer and photographer.
It ended in failure but our hearts, every last one of them, were in the right place.
How do we help wildlife in our garden?
The key to helping wildlife in our wildlife-friendly gardens is to first ensure we do no harm. It is not enough to help wildlife, we need to do everything possible not to put them in dangerous situations in our back yards.
Put bird baths and bird feeders in areas that provide easy escape for birds
Provide wildlife escape routes from deep water in the garden
Ensure all windows are equipped with warning decals to protect birds from striking the windows
Do not use any poisons in your garden
A red squirrel gets a drink from a reflection pond in the backyard. Remember to make all water sources simple to enter and exit.
The story went national (as seen in this newspaper link to a story about the incident.) I was deluded with calls about our injured deer. Well-meaning people offered to help.
It was heartbreaking. A local deer, one that had probably been to my feeder many, many times over the course of its life was in the backyard at the feeder with a cross bow arrow through its neck.
Furious that a hunter would do such a thing and leave this beautiful animal to die a miserable, painful and slow death, I had to do something to try to save it.
After a number of phone calls, with help from Toronto Zoo officials, I managed to track down an incredible veterinarian who agreed to help.
After looking at pictures of the deer with the arrow in its neck, the veterinarian decided he would attempt to tranquilize the deer, remove the arrow and hope that the damage was minimal enough to let go on the spot to live the full and meaningful life it was meant to live.
The photographs of the injured animal suggested to Dr. Wolfgang Zenker that the arrow did not hit any vital organs and that the deer could be saved if we could successfully tranquilize it.
Luck had it that the injured deer was returning each night to our yard to eat the concoction of oats and corn I put out for them.
Then the night came that we were going to attempt to save the deer.
A number of us gathered in our home, peering out windows and hoping our injured deer would appear. Sure enough it showed up and wandered into the backyard looking for food.
Through a bathroom window Dr. Zenker managed to hit it in the rump with a blow dart. The deer bolted at first before pausing for a minute or two prior to descending into the forest.
We had hoped that the dart would take the deer down in the backyard before it went back to the forest, but the dart scared it enough that it bolted and then disappeared.
A number of us descended into the valley in the same place where the deer was last seen.
It wasn’t easy. The snow was deep in some areas and the woodland was thick with brambles and fallen tree stumps.
We searched high and low but were never able to locate the injured deer. The doctor figured our deer most likely found a quiet place and took a long nap hidden under the boughs of a spruce tree.
Although we were not able to save the deer, I heard from neighbours that they would occasionally see it in the forest that winter and that it seemed fine. Reports of its siting eventually faded, however, and our deer story quietly faded away.
It was just one of several of nature’s cruel lessons that woodland gardeners must be ready to accept and one we live each year on our property.
They don’t all end badly.
Important Links for wildlife gardeners
The humane gardener is a website and a book based on helping backyard wildlife. To go to that website, click here. To go to my story about the humane gardener and her books, check out the following links: Humane Gardener: Nurturing a Backyard habitat for Wildlife; and one of five features I wrote on her newest book Wildscpapes: Exploring the Senses to Live in Peace in our Gardens
Rescuing a chipmunk from a yogurt container
On another afternoon, my wife and I in the back enjoying a fine white from the fruit of the vine, noticed an odd movement on our neighbour’s property.
Something looked like it was waving a miniature white flag. I knew of no backyard wars at the time so I walked over unarmed to check out this rather odd situation.
What I found was at both humorous and sad and proof again of humans’ callous disregard for the environment we share with our forest friends.
What I found was s chipmunk who had somehow managed to get its little head and front paws caught in a small plastic yogurt container left by a lawn crew after a lunch break.
The chipmunk had obviously dived into the container looking for a treat. Once in, he could not get out and was walking upright on his two back legs waving this white plastic container around like a very drunk miniature mascot doing its best to attract as much attention as physically possible.
A chipmunk in trouble drawing attention to itself rarely ends well for the little critters. Luckily, my wife and I were the first to see it and I was able to retrieve it, bring it back to our yard and begin the process of extricating the little guy from his plastic prison.
After a minor operation involving carefully cutting the plastic bottle enough to pry it apart, our little chipmunk scampered from my lap and took up a position a few feet away before gathering itself and scampering away.
I can only imagine what it thought when it finally got free only to find itself in the hand of a human being staring right back at him.
When our mini mascot finally got free, he ran right back to where I first noticed him and joined his better half. (I say he because only males seem to be able to get themselves into these predicaments.)
I can just imagine the story the family shared that night with all gathered around the seed stash in their underground bunker…
“I have such disdain for anybody who gets joy out of blowing the stuffing out of a little woodland creature, that I don’t really care if any of them gets shot.”
A fox who regularly visits the yard takes a drink from large water bowls in the garden. Rocks placed inside the bowls provide access for small animals that could otherwise be trapped inside the bowls.
Five steps to help wildlife in a woodland wildlife-friendly garden
1) Ensure bird feeders and bird baths (link to an earlier post) are situated in an area that provides the birds quick cover if they need to escape a natural predator such as a hawk or an unnatural predator such as the neighbourhood cat. This cover could be a nearby tree, or a brush pile like the one I wrote about in an earlier post here or a thicket of brambles. At the same time, precautions need to be taken to ensure these places of cover do not become a hiding place for the neighbourhood cat to stalk ground-eating birds like mourning doves and juncos. This applies to heated bird baths as well. During the winter, when nearby shrubs are bare, there are fewer places for predators to hide, but birds are more visible to predators as well.
2) Provide a way for wildlife to escape from deeper water sources in your garden. This is especially important for those who have ponds in their yards. Every pond should have at least one shallow area where wildlife can both enter and exit the pond easily and safely. But it is not just ponds that require strict vigilance. Even a simple bucket or a child’s/dog’s bottle cap pool can pose a risk for small wildlife.
One hot afternoon we left our dog’s small bottle-cap pool filled with water and went inside for dinner. While we were having dinner, my wife noticed something swimming around in circles inside the pool. When we went out to investigate, it was a chipmunk who had fallen in but could not escape. It obviously had been swimming around for a long time because it was completely exhausted after we rescued it. A few minutes rest and it was able to scamper away to safety. But we learned a good lesson that day. Ever since, we make sure the pool is emptied before going inside.
3) Ensure all windows near bird feeders and bird baths, or anywhere birds might mistake a window for open sky, have the proper warning decals or barriers to protect the birds from hitting the windows. (See my complete post here about bird window strikes. ) A report from the U.S. estimates as many as 900 million birds could die in that country alone from window collisions. In Canada, it is estimated that as many as 25 million migratory birds are killed because of window collisions. Although there certainly is some evidence that many birds are killed hitting the windows of high-rise office buildings and condos, researchers say more birds are actually killed hitting windows in homes and low-rise buildings.
4) If you have window wells or other areas where small animals can easily get trapped, it’s important to provide ways for them to escape. On more than a few occasions, I have had to go out and rescue toads and voles from our basement window wells. After a few rescues we decided it was necessary to place 2X4s in the wells to give animals that get trapped in the wells a way out. In fact, voles who have been trapped in the wells have actually chewed through our window screens in an attempt to escape. It’s best to help them escape than continuously pay for repairs.
5) Please refrain from using any poisons to control “pests” on your property. More often than not, your target “pests” are not the biggest losers when poisons are used. Consider the possible problems that poisons, including insecticides, can have on animals that these chemicals were never intended to be used against. The mouse or rat that eats the poison is eaten by the fox who also gets sick and may die as a result.
So, instead of the fox controlling the mice problem by eating hundreds or thousands of them over the course of its life, we make the mouse infestation worse by killing their natural predators.
Often, without even realizing it, we do extreme harm to wildlife. Leaving a volleyball net up, for example, can be a recipe for disaster. Waking up to an owl, a deer or fox tangled in netting is not many people’s idea of a relaxing morning. Nor is it good for the animal that likely spent the entire night struggling to free itself from the net.
Also, think twice about putting up iron fencing around your home if you live in deer country. Deer have been known to impale themselves on these fences. Fawns have found themselves caught between rungs. If you must fence your property, ensure there is nothing that will harm the woodland creatures who live in and around your property.
Nature finds a balance if left to its own devices. Our job is to simply allow our properties to become part of nature rather than work against it.
Another day, another wildlife rescue
On another day, I noticed our neighbour’s cat (see my earlier post about keeping cats indoors) had caught a chipmunk and ran outside in attempt to rescue it from the jaws of death. I managed to get to the cat before it killed the chipmunk or raced away with it in its mouth.
When I ran up to the scene, the cat, not knowing my intentions at the time, immediately dropped the chipmunk.
The little chipmunk, recognizing its good fortune and looking for a quick escape in the middle of the grass, decided I was her best chance at that given moment. Up it scampered onto my rather bald head. And, there it stayed quietly hoping the cat would not notice it.
And it didn’t.
So, I took the opportunity to just walk away with the chipmunk sitting comfortably on my head, its little claws digging into my scalp, while it held on for dear life.
The cat, in the meantime, spent most of the rest of the day searching the grass where it last saw its prey.
Chipper and I were off to a far corner of the garden where I had built a small brush pile. I knew the chipmunk would be safe if I could get him there before the cat decided to join him on the top of my head.
Eventually we made it to the brush pile. I reached up and got the chipmunk in my hand and gently placed him on the woodpile safe and sound.
He must have know instinctively that I was there to help him rather than cause any harm. He happily let me place him on the woodpile where he sat for a short time to get his bearings before scampering off into the safety of the brush pile.
Every day, animals, insects and reptiles are fighting to stay alive in our gardens.
The very place we see as our safe place, a sanctuary if you will, can be a dangerous place for those who live in our garden or come to visit it for food or to raise their young.
It is vital that we pay close attention to our backyards so that we do as little harm as possible to the woodland critters big and small.
Everyday is a battle for life and death in our gardens.
All we can do is create an environment where we do as little damage as possible. Oh, did I tell you about our rescued baby fox… the hummingbird… the possum… all stories for another day.