Trapped
By Peter Makuck
Tips for Gardeners
By Jan Corsello
It seems most of the drama that takes place at our house is at the bird feeder. A
month ago a mourning dove, spooked by a sharp-shinned hawk, crashed into a reflec
tion of trees on our living room window. More recently, the drama involved squirrels.
They often squeeze through the slim openings in the protective cage of our supposedly
squirrel-proof feeder and help themselves to sunflower seeds.
One cold rainy morning I was looking out the window and, as usual, saw a gray in
truder inside the cage. To roust these unwelcome guys, all I usually need to do is crack
the window and yell, “Git!” But this time it didn’t work. He just ignored me, an unbear
able insult. Irrationally and maybe comically annoyed, I went downstairs, put on my
hooded parka and stomped toward the feeder. Suddenly he put on a frantic struggle to
squeeze through the narrow space between the cage wires, but couldn’t. Finally, he tried
to exit through the bottom, but got stuck, half in, half out. For a few minutes, I stood
and watched. He kept strugghng but was unable to free himself Before going inside,
I treated him to a morsel of wisdom I many times heard from my mother; “You have
only yourself to blame. Experience is the best teacher.” Hanging upside down, he just
looked at me.
Back in the house where it was comfortably warm, I poured myself another cup of
coffee and watched at the window. He had put his head and front paws up through an
adjacent.space so as not to hang upside down. Fairly certain he’d get free, I decided to
check on him later. At my next check, the cage was swinging wildly with him hanging
upside down again, thrashing and trying to jerk himself loose. It Was interesting that all
his exertion didn’t stop chickadees and titmice from arriving and departing with seeds.
I put on my parka again, walked up to the feeder, and asked him what we were going
to do—and told him he might serve as a good example to other squirrels about what
can happen when you go where you’re not supposed to. His shiny black eye looked
right at me, and he was beginning to look a bit pathetic, his tail wet, no longer fluffy.
One thought was to take the feeder down from the crook, rest it on the wall, get hold
of him behind the head, and pull him out. Not a good idea, I decided. As a teenager I
had trapped mink and muskrats for their pelts and knew too well they could give you
a nasty bite. Muskrats and squirrels have the same kind of sharp front teeth. If I still
had the thick rubber gloves I used as a trapper, I might have given it a try. The other
thought was to just let him hang there until he died, then remove him from the cage.
Neither idea was attractive. The squirrel just looked at me as if to say, “Please, I won’t
bite. I promise.” Now he was soaking wet and shivering.
Then I remembered an animal rescue outfit across Bogue Sound. A look through the
phone book produced the Outer Banks Wildlife Shelter in Newport. A very friendly,
woman answered the phone. With some apologies, I explained the situation and said I
knew squirrels weren’t exactly an endangered species, etc. She said the kind of animal
or bird didn’t matter. She took my phone number and address and said that if she didn’t
get back to me within me within 15 minutes, somebody would be on the way.
Sure enough, half an hour later, a white pickup truck with a covered bed pulled into
my drive. A guy with graying hair, glasses and a black bill cap got out. Quiet and soft-
spoken, he quickly had the cage down, his gloved hand holding the squirrel just as I had
thought of doing. The squirrel was too exhausted to even think about biting. I suggested
that we use my wire cutters on the cage, make more room to ease him out. The rescue
man said it was a good idea and was glad I had cutters because he didn’t. While he held
the cage, I did the snipping and out came the squirrel.
First, he stroked the squirrel’s head, then gently put him into a cloth sack with a
noose, explaining that the little guy was too traumatized and cold to simply let go. They
would feed and warm him up for a few days, then release him. He told me that after one
of our hurricanes, the shelter had about 30 squirrels to rehabilitate.
We spoke for a few minutes. I told him briefly about my history of hunting and trap
ping, about the hundreds of animals I’d killed. But now, aside from a few politicians,
I had no desire to kill anything. He laughed. “We all change,” he said. Then he put the
sack with the squirrel into a cardboard box that would ride next to him on the warm
front seat.
After he left, I went back inside. My wife and I talked it over and decided to make a
donation to Outer Banks Wildlife Shelter, a worthy organization.
It’s Time to Start Thinking Spring.
§) Don’t get too excited when we get a warm day here and there and start pulling off
winter mulch—unless you plan to put it back if a cold snap is predicted. The same
goes for pulling winter weeds. If you do pull them, make sure to water well to settle
the roots of your desirable plants and mulch lightly. These weeds are currently acting
as mulch and protecting the roots of your plants. When you do pull out these weeds
and rake out tree leaves, add them to your compost pile, unless they contain weed
seeds. Even hot compost may not kill them.
§> It appears that the Sago Palms around town really suffered in the recent bitter
weather, and it’s not certain that they can be saved. Once the leaf stems are brown,
that’s it—they are dead. Normally, the rest of the plant will survive, especially if it’s
in a protected area, but maybe not this winter. Everything I’ve read says that they are
not hardy below 30 degrees, so they are just barely hardy in our area. Wait for spring
and clip off the dead branches. This one is a wait and see. In addition, I often clip off
all of the bottom branches in order to stimulate new growth, but again, not until it is
much warmer.
§> Early spring is a good time to divide and replant bulbs and clumping perennials.
Just be sure to do it on a warm day and water well when you’re done. As daffodils
are putting up their stems, you can now find them! Get a garden spade or spading
fork well under the bulbs and lift the whole clump. Separate the bulbs and replant
them; groupings look better than single bulbs here and there. Do this before they
get too tall. With clumping perennial plants like hostas, lift the whole clump and
gently tease apart the individual plantlets, being careful not to break off too many
roots. Replant the babies wherever you like, singly or put them some in pots. With
bulbs and perennials, be sure to replant them at the same depth they were growing
at before you dug them.
8> I have heard from several sources that a bit of vodka in your plant’s water will help
stunt the growth of the stems of flowers that grow too tall to stand alone without
support. I’m going to try it with some of my amaryllises that are sending up long
shoots and buds. One is already about 39” tall!
§> Watch for swelling buds on your spring-blooming shrubs and trees, like spirea,
forsythia, dogwood, redbud, flowering quince and pussywillow, to name a few. Wait
until the buds are pretty swollen, then cut a few branches to “force” indoors. Bring
them in on a warmish day and set them in warm water in a well-lit area and watch
them burst into bloom.
It’s a good time to walk around the garden and see the “bones of the garden,” as Tony
Avent and the late J.C. Raulston would say. Before deciduous trees and shrubs leaf
out, you can prune for shape and to remove crossing branches, etc., while they are
still semi-dormant. It’s also a good time to see where taller plants are causing shorter
ones to grow sideways as they reach for the sun. Make decisions as to which plants
need to get more light—and prune for that to happen.
§) It may not seem like it lately, but now is the time to plant cold-season vegetables or
seeds like snow peas, beans, broccoli, radishes and carrots. I’ve recently learned that
carrot seeds will germinate all winter long.
§> Now is the time to sharpen your pruning shears and other tools, oil hinges, stock up
on potting soil and buy spring and summer blooming bulbs. Some of the suppliers
stop shipping around mid-February, but bulbs are still available in garden centers.
«8> Get ready; spring’s just around the corner. Tender plants like tomatoes and peppers
may be started now indoors so they’ll be big enough to transplant outside at the
proper time. Happy gardening!
20^ The Shoreline . .L .IVtscch 2014