A word of caution

[mgbinspect]

this calls for joke.

The California/Oregon State Department of Fish and Wildlife is advising hikers, hunters, fishermen, and golfers to take extra precautions and be on the alert for bears while in the Truckee, Kirkwood, and Yosemite areas. They advise people to wear noise-producing devices such as little bells on their clothing to alert but not startle the bears unexpectedly. They also advise you to carry pepper spray in case of an encounter with a bear. It is also a good idea to watch for signs of bear activity.

People should be able to recognize the difference between black bear and grizzly bear droppings. Black bear droppings are smaller and contain berries and possibly squirrel fur. Grizzly bear droppings have little bells in them and smell like pepper.

[kurt]

That's not bad....

Since I am sort of a technically inclined nerd w/leanings toward language, let me say here & now that Black Bear droppings have a distinctly conical form.

[hausdok]

Gotta wonder how that bear passed those bells. Ouch!

There are some black bear around here. They'll occasionally den and hibernate under someone's deck and end up on the evening news. There are linx, puma, coyote, plenty of deer and caribou too but the puma and caribou are almost never seen close in (Although I do recall that not too long ago they had to tranq a puma in a tree down in either Auburn or Puyallup and they had to tranq a black bear over on the Olympic peninsula a couple of months ago.

A few years ago, a linx created a sensation in downtown Seattle by walking down a main avenue in broad daylight, walking into a high rise and then into an elevator where he was cornered and tranq'd by the animal control folks.

Last spring I was doing a home over on Camano island. Drove into the yard and a doe and her fawn were there. Mom glanced up but wasn't frightened at all but the baby took off into the bushes to become part of the landscape.

Durin the inspection a bald eagle landed on a tree nearby, ate a fish and then took off while a big old owl hung out nearby watching me work. Kind of creepy having that guy studing everything I was doing. In the middle of the job, I left the front door open for about five minutes and came into the living room to find some squirrels had come inside to see what they could scavenge. When I tried to shoo them outside they began scolding the hell out of me.

I kind of think that the folks that live there probably feed the critters or they wouldn't have been hanging around and wouldn't have been so tame.

OT - OF!!!

M.

[mgbinspect]

Kurt, Did you receive that lab tech's name and number?

[mgbinspect]

Pretty amazing.

I did a home inspection once where the old lady owner insisted on staying for the inspection. When I parted the heavy curtains over the picture window out flies a bat!

Well, you all know the next words out of the home owner's mouth, right? "Oh My!, I never had a bat in the house before YOU arrived!"

Sooo... The home buyer, the Realtor and I chased a bat around the house for about 15 minutes to no avail. Finally as it flew through the hall and into the living room the cat made a Michael Jordan jump and batted it out of the air and into the couch. I pounced upon it with a sheet and carried it out.

One more critter story:

I peered into a relatively new gas forced air furnace in a farm tenant house. It was the kind of burner that acts like a carburator with a ventura and a cylindrical port the flame is thrown down. One of the ports was packed right to the front with grain. A mouse was using it for a silo.

Oh, and Mike, I see hawks out here all the time. Often they fly right over the vehicle to pounce upon prey in the wide tall grass median.

Also, when I lived in the Appalachans I would see its shadow and hear the screams, but there were bobcats up in the mountain. Yeah I miss the mountains and the spectacular stars.

[kurt]

Originally posted by mgbinspect

Kurt, Did you receive that lab tech's name and number?

Nope. It might have gotten nailed in the Bulk Trash folder.

[Les]

I have had two clients back out of purchase based on seeing white tail deer on their property. These folks make an offer on a "corn field palace" then are scared off by deer. "They will bite my kids" "I will hit one on the way to work" "They will poop in my yard and kill grass" "My cat will be terrified" "Can you have them for pets?" "Are hunters allowed in this sub-division?" "Can't the developer put up a nice fence to keep them out?" etc

Remember I don't live in downtown Detroit.

[Brian G]

Originally posted by Les

I have had two clients back out of purchase based on seeing white tail deer on their property.

Strange. I see the opposite reaction here, whether they care anything about hunting or not. The "I can't shoot Bambi" folks usually get more excited than any others, with the "If I put out a salt block, will they come up close for the kids to watch?" sort of questions. I see 'em on my property all the time; they're beautiful.

"They'll bite my kids"...? What kind of knotheads are you dealing with Les? [:-dunce]

Brian G.

Bambi in Gravy....Yummy! [:-chef]

[Chad Fabry]

All summer and fall I make every male in my household mark the boundaries around my 2,000 blueberry bushes. The damn deer gnaw em off at ground level. I tried to persuade my wife to contribute to the effort, but I think the camera scared her.

[Scottpat]

Now would you really like this guy up close for the kids to see!

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[Jerry Simon]

My two cents.

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[Garcha]

I guess last one to the car is....Lunch.

I couldn't make out your pic Scott. But in a couple more years if anything over 40# gets within 20 yds of my kid it'll be dinner. She really loves shooting the bow with Daddy. We have 300 acres of farm all around us, we had soy beans, corn, hay and alfalfa(?) this year. One guy bought a 60 acre lot to grow his own food and hay I guess it was for his herd of Alpacas (?). It's a beautiful thing to go out at 11pm and shine that 33,000 cw maglite across the soy bean to see what scares up. I love the country![:-cowboy]