Native Plant Wildlife Gardening

It’s spring and I am wandering my little plot of woods, checking for chores that need to be done and to generally see how everything has survived the winter. While puttering about I discovered a couple of animal dens tucked away in crannies on the forest floor.

This was an interesting one. It is in the upturned roots of a fallen Eastern red cedar and the entrance is about 15″ across. The hole itself runs horizontal and turns a corner, it appears that there is some sort of chamber in the hollowed roots and trunk area. There are well worn paths to it but I could find no scat so really do not know what is living here. It’s relatively close to my house and whatever the critter is it must be nocturnal, although nocturnal expands my possible residents list, not shorten it. I am a wee hour riser and tend to know what wildlife is about since I have a large in ground bird bath animals visit for a drink during the night. All the same, I haven’t seen anything come from this area. The twigs hanging over it are actually wild muscadines Vitis rotundifolia so during the summer it will be very well hidden.

This den you could walk right over and not see. The entrance is about 10″ across and blends in amazingly well with the forest floor. It also run horizontal instead of going downward into the ground. The tunnel turns a corner as if there is a chamber a bit further back. It’s built in a small bank and tucked under some low growing tree branches.

Now this den is coyote. I’m just tossing it in because I like it. The photo is awful but I wasn’t getting too close! It was in the backyard of a friend who asked me to help ID some plants on their property and located right up close to the house. The people who owned the home were completely unaware of it’s presence, I went through and ID several plants and one coyote den. There are actually three entrances here, it is built into a very steep bank which is difficult to tell from the picture. The area surrounding the den was well worn and there was scat about. The coyotes soon abandoned the den of their own volition.

It appears that my property has gained a couple of new residents over the winter so now I will keep a close watch to see who they are and welcome them. Hopefully we can all respect each other’s space and live together peacefully. It shouldn’t be too hard to accomplish that.