Subject: Re: Ballanced Garden
From: dianne@lox.sandelman.ottawa.on.ca (Dianne Murray)
Organization: Achilles Internet Ltd.
Date: 10 Aug 1997 06:20:38 GMT
Message-ID: <MOD$970810.20779@rec.gardens.ecosystems>
References: <MOD$970804.19438@rec.gardens.ecosystems>


In article <MOD$970804.19438@rec.gardens.ecosystems>, "mariposa" wrote:
>
>Hi All...
Hi. :)

>2) seem to have lil' friends having a ball in my backyard (2-squirrels).
>Assume they are the ground burrowing type (= holes in my yard). Was
>wondering if there was a favorite food (tree,plant,seed..whatever) that I
Well, if they are the ground burrowing type there probably there not
so much for food as for, well, shelter!

So planting food away from the yard might not work.

In Canada the squirrels we have live in trees, well in this area
at least - except for the groundhogs which are large ungainly
squirrels that move like a raccoon and live in burrows.

Have you seen your, uh, furry buddies :) going into these holes
in the ground? How big are the holes? I suppose they may be
prairie dogs but my knowledge of most wildlife outside of
northern areas is rather sketchy...
even if I did take animal behaviour and ecology! ;)

The only holes the squirrels up here dig is to bury food for
fall and winter! One nifty and useful side effect of this is
that they do what ecologists call seed dispersal.

Which reminds me - if you have bats - don't do anything to discourage
them - they're like the owl, predators ->
they'll eat lots of irritating critters. In this
case insects like mosquitos and the like.

And *some* bats - especially the southern ones, are big-time
dispersers of seeds and also do pollination of some species.

maybe you could get a positive id on what kind of owl and squirrel
you have through your local extension office, if you have one?

hope this helps!
cheers!
-Dianne