By the time we reach the month of August, nature’s mating cycle is largely complete. Migrating birds, bats and insects have journeyed to their mating grounds. Eggs have hatched. Nestlings have fledged. Young mammals have left the den.
Breeding colours, so vivid just weeks ago, have given way to the non-breeding plumages. Mammals are in the process of adding density to their coats ahead of the coming cold.
The primary goal of nearly all species at this time of year is to eat as much food as possible and to store fat for winter. Some species, such as squirrels, are also collecting and hiding every morsel they can find.
The way we store our garbage and compost at this time of year, therefore, becomes an important issue in any urban environment in which humans and animals must cohabitate. This isn’t because we want to deny food to wildlife; it’s because we want to maintain good relations with our human neighbours.
Allow me to give you an example. The garbage bylaw in my city, Calgary, allows residents to store garbage in standard plastic garbage bags. Do that at this time of year and this is what is likely to happen.
Shortly after dark, a skunk will emerge from his daily slumber beneath a neighbour’s deck. He will head for the nearest alley to seek out any garbage bags that are lying on the ground. Upon finding one, he will sniff it from top to bottom searching for a sweet spot.
He will then use his claws and teeth to tear an opening the size of a mandarin orange. He and pull out anything that he wants to eat. He will leave behind only what he does not want to eat.
When he is done with this bag, the skunk will move on to the next — and the next after that. He will stop only when he can eat no more or when he is too tired to continue eating.
As he leaves each bag, House Mice and Deer Mice will move in to take his place. They too will eat as much as they can and leave behind only what is foul or impossible to consume.
Before the night is through, coyotes, feral cats and other mammals are likely to join the party. And what started as a hole the size of an orange will be expanded to the size of a basketball.
After dawn will come the Corvids: crows, ravens and noisy, noisy magpies. With their arrival, the garbage which was previously earthbound and strewn about your alley will become airborne. Clutched in their bills and grasped in their claws, these flying scavengers will take chicken bones and other bits of food to wash in the nearest pond or birdbath. Much of it will be left behind.
This is why garbage and compost, especially at this time of year, should be secured in sealed, upright, animal-resistant containers. If you are not willing to do this, you may as well save yourself some time and just throw it over your fence into your neighbour’s backyard.
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Brent Johner has been writing about urban wildlife since 1998. Many of the articles here first appeared in the Calgary Herald, Calgary Gardening magazine or on Talk About Wildlife. Brent has also done dozens of radio, television, newspaper and magazine interviews on the subject of urban wildlife.