Despite the fact that we live in downtown Napa, this morning we were having breakfast when M noticed something odd in our fishpond--a great disturbance. Water was splashing everywhere. When we went out to investigate we found a river otter was dining on our goldfish sushi.... We chased him away...and he was back in five minutes. Apparently the sushi was delicious. Then we chased him away with more determination, and we think he headed back to the creek behind our house. He'll probably return for thirds at some point...sigh.

[img]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/m37nKm...L_=w600-h800-no[/img]

Holy crap, naughty naughty otter! There otter be a law.

Having an interstate between the river and our casa I don't have to worry about ottervasions, but the bloody raccoons visit our ponds. The large one is too deep for easy access but the smaller one they can just wade in and wreck havoc. I only keep mosquito fish in that one and enough survive the incursions, but I've also learned that water lily roots are raccoon food and I no longer try raising those.

It's bothersome but Otters gotta eat too. I hate losing fish to the snapping turtles in our pond but they seems to only take enough to survive. The fish population has remained fairly stable. It bugs me when the fauna dine in the garden but it is what it is and I plant enough so there's enough for us all. Can't go killing them off directly or starving them out. I've gotten used to feeding the squirrels with bird seed too.

OK--now you're just facilitating bad behavior!

In Northern California, the deer are pretty much an urban pest. Lots of nature loving, tree hugging gardeners would shoot the deer that eat their plants if they were allowed to do so...