MagiStream

I would watch kitty for signs that she has noticed it (smelled or heard) and figure out where it is from there. Look in corners- edges between ceiling and wall, wall to wall, and in any dark nook.
When you do find it, even if dead, do NOT touch it with your bare hands. Get a good thick towel (or fold it over a few times) Bats can carry some horrific diseases and certain strains don't take much to pass along. The fact that it WAS out in winter and not hibernating means there is a good chance that it IS sick.

You can contact animal control, find out if they have any other options for catching it, or suggestions on what to do with it when caught. There may be rehabilitators in your area who can care for it until spring.

If you do catch it and it seems healthy, take it out and nudge it into the bat box, since you have one. If he doesn't go in, but flies off, that's ok too. He knows how to find a good nook to sleep in.

TNHawke wrote:I would watch kitty for signs that she has noticed it (smelled or heard) and figure out where it is from there. Look in corners- edges between ceiling and wall, wall to wall, and in any dark nook.
When you do find it, even if dead, do NOT touch it with your bare hands. Get a good thick towel (or fold it over a few times) Bats can carry some horrific diseases and certain strains don't take much to pass along. The fact that it WAS out in winter and not hibernating means there is a good chance that it IS sick.

You can contact animal control, find out if they have any other options for catching it, or suggestions on what to do with it when caught. There may be rehabilitators in your area who can care for it until spring.

If you do catch it and it seems healthy, take it out and nudge it into the bat box, since you have one. If he doesn't go in, but flies off, that's ok too. He knows how to find a good nook to sleep in.

Like rabies. So yeah, be careful when dealing with it.

We decided last year to consciously turn our property into a backyard wildlife sanctuary.

Links: Living with Wildlife
Garden for Wildlife

And what USA Today had to say about it:

Your Backyard Could Be a Wildlife Habitat

We'd already planned to implement sustainable living practices and to make as little an imprint on this valuable wildlife habitat as possible. In the ten years I've lived here we have seen:

- Florida panther
- Florida mouse
- eastern indigo snake
- gopher tortoise

Additionally, several native endangered flora live here.

This summer, we bought plants which attract butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds. This winter, we put up permanent feeders for the first time. The feeders contain a variety of foods recommended for birds in the area: properly prepared suet cakes, dry unsalted peanuts in the shell, cracked corn, fresh fruits, black oil sunflower seeds, and a finch mix.

I've had an amazing birding season so far. We attracted:

- a murder of crows (now resident - we are hoping to be able to observe nests and nestlings)
- red bellied woodpeckers
- a pair of catbirds (they love oranges, by the way)
- a pair of blue jays (did you know they sing sweetly?)
- marsh wrens
- Carolina chickadees
- chipping sparrows
- swamp sparrows
- eastern goldfinch
- a pair of eastern Towhees (I got to watch them do their mating rituals earlier in the week)
- ivory billed woodpecker (yes, I really saw one; it was verified by the Cornell ornithology lab)
- titmice
- ground doves
- Killdeer (identified by call)
- ruby crowned kinglet
- Savannah sparrow
- cardinals (did you know they also sing and they flock with sparrows in the winter...and with each other!)
- yellow throated vireo
- hooded warbler
- whip-poor-will (identified by call)
- eastern screech owl (identified by call, it's the one they use when they're looking for a mate)

I could watch these guys for hours; they're so interesting and I'd no idea that the various species were so cooperative with one another. When the tube feeder for the finches and sparrows has a full complement, I've seen the birds there scratching down seed or handing it off via beak to the birds who have to wait.

We solved the squirrel problem by feeding them too. I bought a 25 pound mixed block meant for deer and placed it away from the other feeders. Now the squirrels either quietly eat what's on the ground or they chew on that. The single one who was persistent about getting into the feeder got a surprise: we greased the pole. It doesn't bother the birds and we have a good time watching the squirrel play fireman

When it's just a bit warmer I need to buy and plant more butterfly and bee attracting flowers and plants. Most of them, sadly, are annuals even in Florida. I LOVE the bees! They come for the oranges and I watch them going off to their hive. The neighbors have one so I guess that's where the bees call home.

My mother and I were driving back from shopping today and saw, what we think, were some Wild Turkeys(hens most likely) out in a field.
Even though this is part of their range, this is the first time I've ever seen a wild turkey before.

We have to deal with the geese now. They are...pretty much everywhere. I saw four of them at the pond of the Community college and none of the local ducks and two white geese who normally live there. Makes me wonder if they drove those ones off or if the staff purposely removed the captive ones to avoid any wild diseases the Canadian geese might bring...

Just noticed that yesterday.

If domestic fowl were living on the pond, there's a good chance that they were removed by humans. A number of years ago, in Boise, Fish and Game went through and SHOT all the domestic ducks and geese. Various activist groups raised hell about that, and now they try to catch and find homes, rather than kill them.
They might also just be nesting, and so they aren't being seen.

Actually, I don't think they are. I actually don't know exactly but I think the ducks and two geese actually belong to the college and normally can be found on that little pond (even when it was snowing). I don't know why they're there, but they been there since I been to the college.

Speaking of geese, I saw a pair of Canada geese waddling around on my school's upper field this morning. I'm guessing they're mates because one of them is super protective over the other (I'm guessing that's the gander). They come every day, and people keep chasing them around... >:( I just hope that they don't get into any accidents.

I see a lot of new birds around my house lately. At first I thought they were just mourning doves, but I'm not so sure now. They look a bit bigger and have a paler plumage. They might be Eurasian collared doves, but I'm not so sure. A flock of cedar waxwings also frequent my house. They always fly away when I try to get a picture of them, though. >:(

I saw two doves on our basketball goal yesterday. I thought they were mates because they seemed to be grooming each other but one flew off and it was a while before the other flew off.

I heard waxwings are pretty birds and you just have to be sneaky to snap a shot of them . When I went outside one day I heard several bird calls that I recognized (well not actually in what bird they were, but that I heard them before). I just hope the snow hasn't hurt them though, we been getting weird patterns with snowfall this year and many migrating birds have returned and then it snows and theyr'e stuck.