Day 26: Battling Nature



The Grackle.  Note the voracious mouth!



Today I was accused of being an Elmer Fudd whose epic battle with Bugs Bunny echoes Ahab's battle with Moby Dick but in a comical and absurd way because I put netting over the cabbages in my garden in an effort to discourage the newly arrived grackles from destroying the cabbages' broad leaves in an effort to get their fill of insects.  The robin of a couple weeks ago  was a minor gardening inconvenience compared to the onslaught of grackles.  At the same time what appears to be a single gopher--gophers do not swarm like grackles, so telling just how many one is actually dealing with is difficult--is making large holes in my flower garden and elsewhere that are difficult to ignore.  Discouraging both the grackles and the gopher(s) is obviously required.  They need to find another place to live and other food to eat.  I have a feeling that neither reason nor a scarecrow will work with the grackles.  Neither flooding the gopher holes nor filling them with rocks has discouraged the gopher(s).  What I really need is some solid advice and not ridicule.  Oh, well.  How often does one get what one needs when one needs it?  I can't say never because I got Gracie at just the right moment.  I can say not often, though, and will. 



Striped gopher: NOT a chipmunk!

"I can think; I can fast; I can wait."  A good mantra to turn to in times like this.  Running into the yard, flapping the arms and cursing the grackles causes them to take to the air but only momentarily.  In addition, this unsettles Gracie who, tender heart that she is, thinks all raised voices are a criticism of her.  (I have had to tone down my admittedly heated conversation with other cars on the road while we are driving places for this reason.  Undoubtedly, traveling the world with Gracie will make me a nicer person even if it alone will not rid us of grackles and gophers).  



Gracie modeling good garden behavior--no tunneling and no  pecking at the plants or eating the seeds and sprouts.  While the others have got to go, Gracie is a keeper!