The remaining "messy" corner had vines overgrowing saplings and bushes, with dead leaves and fallen stones from the wall interspersed. I went in with rake and clippers, and cleared it all out. I was pulling vines 12 feet long out of the trees, and pulling up roots another ten feet long from the ground. Piled them all into garbage cans and over the fence. I cut down one sapling to make room for another to grow, and cleared away the mountain laurel shrub (the state flower!) so it gets some sun.
Imagine my surprise when I discovered some of the vines were poison ivy. This was several days later, when I broke out in a massive rash. Now, three weeks later, the last of it is fading. There are still some clumps of poison ivy about, and I'll remove them today, being a bit more careful this time.
I also discovered a gap in the chain link fence; there's a small hole underneath the fence at one point I knew about: it's how the neighborhood cats get through. This one, though, is a large gap that's pulled away from the post. Perhaps that's how the coyote came in.
We suspected there were coyotes in the woods, with the deer and what-have-you; each winter some neighborhood cats would disappear without a trace. One morning this summer, though, Sue calls me to the window: "Whose dog is that?" No dog: a coyote in our yard, trying to find a way back into the woods. I called the police, not with any expectation that they could do anything but just to serve notice that there was a wild carnivore roaming the neighborhood.
One of the missing cats is Vern, who is pictured in an earlier post. He made a habit of hanging around my yard, thanks to the woods access and my bird feeder.
With him gone, and the wall cleared away, residents of the wall are coming out to avail themselves of the seed. The pictured chipmunk (with a couple of tufted titmouses) is one of two; this one figured out that he is too light to trigger the spring on my squirrel-proof feeder. I have also seen a field mouse, a big ol' fat one, chowing down at the base of the tree. I was more concerned about snakes in the stone wall, but there can't be any if the rodents are running around like that.
There's a cat from down the street that's discovered our woods access, and if he continues to come around perhaps the situation will take care of itself. Circle of life, and all that. In the meantime, the tree is going hollow, so I'll have to cover up the hole to keep the animals out.
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