A few years ago, we were invaded by gophers and a mole or two. I think the moles left when the gopher mounds began multiplying. We had over a dozen mounds on our front lawn at one point. Argh! We put a trap in one hole and the next morning five more mounds had erupted around the one with the trap – as if the gopher was giving us a stern reprimand for trying to end his life. The front lawn began to look like Gopher City. I almost posted a sign, but the HOA has a rule against it. We felt like we were living in “Caddy Shack”. We decided to do some landscaping, taking out the gopher mounds and planting a couple of trees and pretty ground cover, all plants in metal baskets to keep those pesky critters from dining on them, and surrounding the area with different sized rocks. The gophers did “decorative” mounds around the border. Sigh.
Now, we have a vole in our backyard lawn. They are herbivores and eat all kinds of things. I started noticing the lawn developing raised green winding pathways. Step on one and you know there is a tunnel collapsing under you. I think we started with one vole, but now I’m fairly sure there is a family living under our lawn.
Since we live backed up to “green space”, we expected to see and coexist with critters. We’ve seen skunks, so cute and stinky (just ask Ranger), and heard coyotes. We have hawks close by, providing raucous hawklets each year to entertain us. A flock of turkeys shows up in our yard, especially when the merlot grapes are ready for harvest. A herd of twenty black Angus cattle graze in the pastureland, and squirrels cavort in our redwood trees, chittering their complaints when I’m slow in putting our more peanuts. We’ve seen evidence of raccoons and possums who dine on our apples and pears. They leave their “thank you” on the top of our fence.
Having a smooth, green lawn is a dream – unless you purchase the imitation variety. Our lawn was smooth. Now it looks like modern art with swirling and whirling squiggles in a dozen directions. I’ve read that as many as 4,000 voles can live on an acre. Since we have under that amount of land, I’m thankful we only seem to have one family in residence and hope they don’t invite other relatives and friends to leave the green space and join them.
Maybe winter and being on the flood plain will make them pick higher ground elsewhere. In the meantime, you’ll see me wandering around the backyard lawn, arms outstretched, doing a tightrope walk on vole tunnels.
I’m just trying to level the playing field.