While doing a large poison oak job, Alex Hartung and I found a pack rat nest on a steep brush and tree-covered hillside on Oman Drive, Soulsbyville. An interior live oak had fallen over, still green, with roots intact. There were bits of bark and small branches strewn thickly over the top of the nest, which stood about three feet high. There was no way such material could have accumulated naturally like this on that tree. It was a pack rat nest. June 19, 2021. Photos by Alex Hartung.

Alexander Stewart took these photos of an extensive mast storage on the stucco siding of a house on Dyer Court in Groveland at Pine Mountain Lake. The picture shows the foam foundation forms with a layer of stucco that has thousands of holes drilled into it from the acorn woodpeckers.

This roof rat nest was found in an abandoned chicken coop, located near a dense growth of blackberries, along Highway 49, north of Sonora. The rat used materials from all round the chicken coop to build the nest.

5 April 2021

One or two tree squirrels were attacking a Japanese maple tree, chewing off small branches. There was little we could do, as the homeowners did not want to harm the squirrels.

Looking online, we find that this behavior of attacking and chewing off small branches of Japanese maples is common.

31 August 2020, Columbia Ca.

Chickarees (aka Douglas squirrels) had no trouble gaining entrance through a gap at the peak of this very tall home in Bear Valley.

After our manager. Josh Esposito, found the entry point, plans were made on how to exclude the chickarees.

The ground was sloped too severely to allow the use of a boom truck. So our crew, Beto Gonzalez, Juan Gonzalez, and Tito Rodriquez-Tinoco built a platform to hold a forty foot ladder, allowing Juan to climb all the way up and seal the entry point.

Great work, men!!

9 July 2020

Ryles Richards took these photos of a deer mouse he caught in a trap baited with an almond. The mouse manged to get the almond off the bait pedal of a Victor mouse snap trap. But he wasn’t fast enough. The almond can be seen in the mouse’s mouth.

Groveland, Ca, 6 May 2020.

Bears often get into people’s trash in Dorrington. I came to spray this house and saw that the trash can holder had been knocked over. The top/lid was still attached, and even latch was still on it. The bear managed to pull out the trash, and even left his signature on the lid. I cleaned up the mess for the owners.

29 April 2020

Bear knocked over the trash container and pulled the trash out.

I cleaned it up. The white is some rags that are kept in the trash bin. Lid is up on this photo.

The bear bit the lid.

Opossum tracks under a house. Tuolumne County, California. 23 March 2020

Thanks to Charles Hood for the identification!

Ryles Richards found two pack rat nests under a house in Pine Mountain Lake, Groveland Ca. The nests were on opposite sides of the home’s subarea.

14 February 2020

A rat was actually in the smaller, multicolored nest, and ran away when Ryles found the nest.

One nest is made from a variety of materials, and was constructed on an old green sleeping bag.

The other nest, two pictures at the bottom, was more birdnest-like, in that it was open at the top.

While digging up a mound of dirt left by a pocket gopher, I found a cache of small pieces of bermuda grass roots.

11 February 2020, Sonora California.

Here is a link to a video of a pocket gopher cache of acorns.