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Underneath my birdfeeder, some sunflowers had sprouted from the black oil suflower seeds we feed birds over the winter. I was letting them (and the grass around them) grow in hopes of them flowering. Though they never got very high, it looked like a few were developing flower buds. Then Saturday afternoon, I looked out the kitchen window and saw a young woodchuck standing among them, eating each one of them right down to the ground.

After polishing off our flowers, he ran to the bushes along our backyard shed. I went to investigate, and I saw well-worn paths behind the forsythias and a small mound bulging from under the shed.

A few years ago, a very large woodchuck had burrowed under the shed and lived there a couple of years. Eventually we live trapped him and relocated him to a nearby park. I can see why they like it. It has a concrete slab foundation they can burrow under, and it's surrounded by large bushes for extra cover. With a yard full of clover, all sorts of wild and domesticated flower plantings, a pear tree and several types of berries--plus, unlike almost every neighboring yard, NO DOG!--it could probably pass for woodchuck heaven.

But buildings can subside into their burrows, opening the gate to homeowner hell. He would have to go.

Yesterday after we got home from church, I set the trap, baited with a sliced apple, along one of the woochuck's trails. Kristine and I then started working on the porch, and after about a half hour I went back to look at the trap and there he was.



Though they can cause problems, I like woodchucks. They're humorous looking but fierce little beasts with meek rodent eyes, slightly oversized noses, and heavy, hooked claws, suitable for digging or for driving off predators with the temerity to enter their burrows. They resemble small bears, and in their maturity they sport a physique that makes fat summer grizzlies look emaciated. If you watch a large one running away, you'll be amazed that anything could waddle that quickly. The one I caught yesterday darted frantically from one corner of the trap to the other as I carried, making it swing hard and showing that his stubby body held considerable power. When he bared his thick, conical teeth, a few doubts as to the strength of the cage wire passed through my mind.

After a couple of photos, I loaded him into the car and drove him to a park about 4 miles away. It's not large, but has nice expanses of woods and meadows, as well as a few houses on its boundaries, should my earstwhile tenant desire to return to more domestic quarters.

Tags: Nature; Animals