Mice, mallards & bats

Lorraine Julien | Jun 24, 2015

Following are some of my families’ personal experiences with wildlife in the city and at the cottage. I hope you find them interesting and a little bit humorous.

The first story is about a little pond that is in the fenced city backyard belonging to my daughter and her husband. The pond is tiny by any standards – perhaps about six or seven feet long by about four feet in width. The actual water in the pond is about 2 feet by 3 feet and perhaps a couple of feet deep. It is hard to believe but a pair of mallard ducks visit the pond each morning and evening to float in the pond, perhaps eat some algae and other plant life, and get some of the leftovers at the bird feeder. They seem to be partial to ground corn. The only time they don’t visit is when they build their nest and sit on the eggs; otherwise they’ve been coming for a couple of years. It’s wonderful that, even in a city subdivision environment, birds such as these come to visit. I guess the ducks like it because it is very quiet and safe. Rabbits and many other birds visit regularly but it’s the ducks that amaze me.

My brother and his wife purchased a cute little cottage with clapboard siding about 30 years ago and they really enjoyed their little lakeside waterfront. The air was wonderfully fresh and it was nice to go to bed at night breathing the fresh air and enjoying the silence. After a while though, they noticed a really bad smell and could hear rustling sounds outside the cottage most nights. After some investigation, they found that families of little brown bats had taken up residence in their shutters. The shutters on the building faced south and bats really love lots of heat. The pungent smell was from bat droppings. They tried to discourage the bats by blocking the sides of the shutters but it didn’t work – somehow the bats still got in. Eventually, the strong smell continued and the shutters had to be removed but we felt bad that the bats had lost their home as they do eat tons of bugs. I purchased a bat house that year for my brother’s birthday and my husband and I also purchased one. Even though the bat houses were installed facing south, just a few feet above the water, there is no evidence that we were ever able to entice the bat families to the bat houses. Of course the bat populations have dropped considerably in recent years and they are probably quite choosy about where they want to roost for the night and to raise their families.

The next story is not very nice – in fact it is a bit gross! One winter, quite a few years ago, we visited my brother’s cottage. It is not heated in the winter but doesn’t seem to take long to heat up enough so that you don’t stick to the frozen chairs when you sit down. While waiting for the woodstove to warm the place, I decided to check out the pantry. There had been signs that mice had been in the building, much to our dismay, and I wanted to be sure that all was okay in the cupboard. At the very least, mice can do so much damage and their droppings are a real health hazard.

When I opened the pantry door, I stepped back in shock. My brother and his wife had a very large glass jar, filled with cooking oil, on a shelf at just about eye level. The lid was plastic. The shocking sight was a bunch of faces peering out of the jar, perfectly preserved and their eyes open. There were about 13 mice in the jar according to my brother (I didn’t stick around but ran screaming out of the building!) The mice had completely chewed the entire lid and, one by one, hopped into the jar where they drowned unable to climb up the slippery sides of the jar because of the oil it contained. It is one of the grossest sights I have ever seen. At any time, mice give me the creeps but this was off the scale for me – I would far sooner encounter a bear (which we’ve done several times with no problems)!

After this latest episode, my brother decided enough was enough! He decided to scrutinize every nook and cranny on the building. Luckily, it is a basic cottage that sits on piers well above the ground. He caulked every possible place around the perimeter wherever the walls and floors joined. Still, mice continued to get into the building but he finally discovered the point of entry, a tiny spot at the corner of the main door where it meets the threshold. After plugging that with wood, they’ve had many years of cottage living without being invaded (unless you count mosquitoes).

Note: If you are gardening or just out for a walk, please be on the lookout for baby turtles. Amazingly, my neighbours at the lake have discovered two baby snapping turtles that apparently survived this cold winter in their nests. The snappers are the turtles with long tails. If you find one, please take it near the water’s edge where it may have a chance of survival.