Wildlife at Joseph's Dream
One of the nice thing about Joseph's Dream, (yes there are some nice things despite all the frustrating issues), is the community's country atmosphere while being just minutes from downtown Bedford and a large shopping mall with Walmart, Lowe's,
restaurants, Dollar General etc.
Here we are, five minutes from a major highway, up on a side hill,
surrounded by trees, on a dead end cul de sac, our nearest neighbor
a nursing home.
The birds, which we are not allowed to feed or provide birdbaths for, are singing in the bushes, a woodpecker hammers away on a dead tree up on the hill top. Bees of many varieties are humming ,
butterflies flit about as they search for nectar-bearing blossoms.
All short of course, since we are not allowed flowers over 10 inches tall.
Generally it is a quiet, rather peaceful spot. One of it's advertised
delights being,- the country atmosphere.
The ads do not speak of the wildlife (other than the birds we cannot encourage to spend time on the property).
We have possums who visit nightly, strolling up the sidewalks. They are good mousers. Ugly little chaps, inclined to be a bit short tempered, but very useful. We have the occasional raccoon. Once
a young racoon climbed into the dumpster , then after rummaging through the plastic bags and making a great mess in there, he found he was unable to get back out. Animal control came, extracted him gently and relocated him.
There are foxes, even coyotes, who stay up on the hill, running along the deer trails, singing their eerie screaming laughter.
DEER--we have deer, who actually venture down to the parking lot
and onto the lawns and into the flower beds. We joke that Joseph has hired them to enforce the 10 inch rule, since they do seem to prefer lilies, nipping them off from their 2 foot height down to
"legal" size. Of course they devour the blossom too, which was the whole point of planting those lilies in the first place.
We have wild turkeys. We hear those gobblers in the Spring. That
sound, and probably the smell of them, sends my Brittany into
spasms of delight. Her body stiff as a sentinel, nose twitching ever
so slightly, she whimpers under her breath, " Get the gun. I see one."
Of course there are mice and moles, snakes, praying mantis, stink bugs and hundreds of other little creatures lurking about.
A few years ago a very large tortoise came strolling through the
yards. No one bothered him (or her) and he just passed on by and has not been seen again.
A few days ago, there was a lot of excitement across the lot from me. Several gathered cautiously, circling some unfortunate creature. Robert, the maintenance man was summoned. Kathryn,
the manager also came. Although Kathryn was wearing a mask, everyone else appeared to have momentarily forgotten about social
distancing. Except from the critter in question, from whom all kept
a good six feet. Watching from across the street, I assumed they had cornered a snake. We have seen Copperheads here-not often-
I think only 2 in 8 years. One resident killed a big Blacksnake. I almost cried. The poor snake had a frog half-way down his gullet when the "brave" resident chopped his head off with a shovel.
"I was afraid he would bite me", he retorted when I confronted him.
"And just how was he going to bite you when he had his mouth full of frog?" I responded.
Well I have to make allowances--I being born and bred in the country, have lived with and cared for these creatures. At least half of the residents here came from cities-were apartment dwellers most of their lives. Mice they know about and Cockroaches, and what they know is they must be dispatched.
Well anyway, it turns out that the unwelcome visitor was a turtle.
Aren't all turtles Snappers? Dangerous? She was dinnerplate size.
I was seriously wondering why Kathryn did not call me over since
she knows my history as a licensed wildlife rehabilitator and since
she is always asking me about things I do NOT know the answer to.
But she didn't. Once I knew what they were dealing with I felt quite certain it was a female who had come up to a flower bed--loose soil to lay her eggs--and if left to her own, she would leave as soo as she had accomplished her mission. But of course they did not know that, so Robert got a bucket and a pole and after some
poking and prodding, the turtle was in the bucket. Robert took her
back to the swamp area and released her. If she had not yet laid those eggs, she might be back.
So when word of a few bears moving into other areas of Bedford ,
spread, we once again were told we must not hang bird feeders as they could attract bears.
One morning one of the residents looked out her kitchen window and sure enough--a large black animal was in the trees right behind her apartment. When Robert was called he told her she was seeing a big black dog. However; she insisted that this was no dog.
So Robert dutifully went to check it out . There in the treeline
did, indeed, stand a large black animal which was not a dog.
The animal, apparently completely unalarmed by the sight of a human so close, lifted it's fuzzy black head and said "MOO".
Seems a Black Angus had escaped from a local farm.
restaurants, Dollar General etc.
Here we are, five minutes from a major highway, up on a side hill,
surrounded by trees, on a dead end cul de sac, our nearest neighbor
a nursing home.
The birds, which we are not allowed to feed or provide birdbaths for, are singing in the bushes, a woodpecker hammers away on a dead tree up on the hill top. Bees of many varieties are humming ,
butterflies flit about as they search for nectar-bearing blossoms.
All short of course, since we are not allowed flowers over 10 inches tall.
Generally it is a quiet, rather peaceful spot. One of it's advertised
delights being,- the country atmosphere.
The ads do not speak of the wildlife (other than the birds we cannot encourage to spend time on the property).
We have possums who visit nightly, strolling up the sidewalks. They are good mousers. Ugly little chaps, inclined to be a bit short tempered, but very useful. We have the occasional raccoon. Once
a young racoon climbed into the dumpster , then after rummaging through the plastic bags and making a great mess in there, he found he was unable to get back out. Animal control came, extracted him gently and relocated him.
There are foxes, even coyotes, who stay up on the hill, running along the deer trails, singing their eerie screaming laughter.
DEER--we have deer, who actually venture down to the parking lot
and onto the lawns and into the flower beds. We joke that Joseph has hired them to enforce the 10 inch rule, since they do seem to prefer lilies, nipping them off from their 2 foot height down to
"legal" size. Of course they devour the blossom too, which was the whole point of planting those lilies in the first place.
We have wild turkeys. We hear those gobblers in the Spring. That
sound, and probably the smell of them, sends my Brittany into
spasms of delight. Her body stiff as a sentinel, nose twitching ever
so slightly, she whimpers under her breath, " Get the gun. I see one."
Of course there are mice and moles, snakes, praying mantis, stink bugs and hundreds of other little creatures lurking about.
A few years ago a very large tortoise came strolling through the
yards. No one bothered him (or her) and he just passed on by and has not been seen again.
A few days ago, there was a lot of excitement across the lot from me. Several gathered cautiously, circling some unfortunate creature. Robert, the maintenance man was summoned. Kathryn,
the manager also came. Although Kathryn was wearing a mask, everyone else appeared to have momentarily forgotten about social
distancing. Except from the critter in question, from whom all kept
a good six feet. Watching from across the street, I assumed they had cornered a snake. We have seen Copperheads here-not often-
I think only 2 in 8 years. One resident killed a big Blacksnake. I almost cried. The poor snake had a frog half-way down his gullet when the "brave" resident chopped his head off with a shovel.
"I was afraid he would bite me", he retorted when I confronted him.
"And just how was he going to bite you when he had his mouth full of frog?" I responded.
Well I have to make allowances--I being born and bred in the country, have lived with and cared for these creatures. At least half of the residents here came from cities-were apartment dwellers most of their lives. Mice they know about and Cockroaches, and what they know is they must be dispatched.
Well anyway, it turns out that the unwelcome visitor was a turtle.
Aren't all turtles Snappers? Dangerous? She was dinnerplate size.
I was seriously wondering why Kathryn did not call me over since
she knows my history as a licensed wildlife rehabilitator and since
she is always asking me about things I do NOT know the answer to.
But she didn't. Once I knew what they were dealing with I felt quite certain it was a female who had come up to a flower bed--loose soil to lay her eggs--and if left to her own, she would leave as soo as she had accomplished her mission. But of course they did not know that, so Robert got a bucket and a pole and after some
poking and prodding, the turtle was in the bucket. Robert took her
back to the swamp area and released her. If she had not yet laid those eggs, she might be back.
So when word of a few bears moving into other areas of Bedford ,
spread, we once again were told we must not hang bird feeders as they could attract bears.
One morning one of the residents looked out her kitchen window and sure enough--a large black animal was in the trees right behind her apartment. When Robert was called he told her she was seeing a big black dog. However; she insisted that this was no dog.
So Robert dutifully went to check it out . There in the treeline
did, indeed, stand a large black animal which was not a dog.
The animal, apparently completely unalarmed by the sight of a human so close, lifted it's fuzzy black head and said "MOO".
Seems a Black Angus had escaped from a local farm.
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