Most outdoor enthusiasts have heard about or watched some of the reality outdoor shows on cable television over the past years.

Many times, I have watched a show and thought that this is crazy and that kind of stuff can’t really be happening, but lately, I have been getting some eye openers. I’m going to take the time to share some of my recent experiences with the critters that share our back yards and would make many a citizen happy if they stayed in their own wild habitat.

It all started when the summer flower gardens were put into the enriched soil of my flower beds. A great deal of time, effort and household expense is put into decorative gardening each year at our household.

This includes annuals, perennials and flowering shrubs that can really perk up the appearance of your home’s curbside appeal. I was all in on the projects and decided that time would be well worth the exhibition of beautiful flora!

I naively forgot the other word that accompanies flora in the text books and that word is fauna. We had the flora and boy we also had the fauna!

First of all, I am all about live and let live in the natural world. After all, we created a natural wildlife habitat around our home on purpose…I just didn’t count on it being so successful. The birds came in flocks and so did the predator hawks.

We would be trying to identify the song birds when a loud screech would announce a bird feeder raid. Soon afterwards, I was identifying piles of bird feathers instead of the birds themselves. A relocation of feeders and limits of when the feed would be placed out slowed the raptors but also limited our visitors as well.

Then we had to endure the migrations of the squirrels. The population tripled in size when the young of the year were introduced to sunflowers. If you forget that a squirrel is a rodent, wait until you have ten or 12 pay you a visit every day.

Squirrels are not only acrobatic, but they are clever and quickly figure out safeguards that will protect your feeders from them … ha! Lest I show favoritism, let’s not forget the protected species the PA chipmunk … not too smart, but they sure can multiply each year.

They dig tunnels and passages in all of the garden walls and planters. If I get one more walnut or hickory tree growing in the yard, I swear that I will try to find a good use for those rodents.

I was just bragging that the bear hadn’t visited us this year when I awoke to a mess spread up the roadway and into the church cemetery property.

We just finished up our cleanup when the refuse truck pulled up for our collection. My driver Marjo gave me some good pointers and now we have the toter bungee corded up pretty tight now. My neighbors down the road didn’t get the memo and they chased down their bags the next week.

My neighbor shotgun Mike told me that he had a secret ingredient to bear proof his can, but I didn’t fall for his practical joke … the bear got him the next week anyways … too bad Mike!

The deer ate our hosta’s, day lilies, blueberry bushes and red maple tree again, but public enemy No. 1 has to be the raccoons. The other night, I pulled the box trap out of storage due to my wife’s distress of having all of her flower and strawberry planters being dug up and plants strewn about the sidewalks and yard.

I was going to get to the bottom of this mischief and put out the live trap. The trap was baited with fresh greens and grains and I waited for the culprits. It took a few days, but I finally hit the jackpot on the full moon this past week.

I saw some little fur balls sitting on top of the box peering down into the holding pen. To my joy or dismay, I had them. Mama raccoon and four babies! The cubs didn’t even know they were in harm’s way as they pretended that I wasn’t there at all.

The wife gave me the look and then the question … now what, Mr. Trapper. I told her that I had no choice but to go out and have a reckoning with the furry critters.

After a stern talk, I pointed the cage towards the neighbor’s house and told them to go visit Mike — he likes critters — and sent them on their way. They took off pretty fast in his direction, but unfortunately the clan came back to our birdbaths full of fresh water the next afternoon. They just can’t resist a good frog pond!

I guess I have to make a choice and that is watch and enjoy their antics or quit giving them a great habitat.

Don’t forget the 2020 Antlerless licenses need to be mailed this weekend. Also, if you want a chance on the PA Elk licenses for this year, they need to be mailed in the upcoming weeks as well.

Until we meet again, stay cool, be patient with others and get your fall hunting plans in order.

Jay Hewitt is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle