I’m told that these are rarely seen and I believe that since this is the first time in four years that I have seen one. We think it’s a pocket gopher or similar critter according to a wildlife pamphlet we consulted after I took this photo.
I went up on the hill behind the RV drive to refill the bird feeders and saw the gopher near the base of the garden poles where the feeders hang. It went back into its hole and disappeared, so I went about my business with the birdseed block and bell I brought up with me. When I opened the packages, there were a few loose seeds that I threw down close to the hole where I saw it a few minutes before.
After I finished, I retreated down the hill a bit where I could see the hole. By and by, the birds started to come back to the feeders and shortly after that, the gopher stuck its nose out of the hole and started eating some of the seeds I had tossed its way. Eventually, it came all of the way out of the hole and I was able to get this photo of it.
At present, I don’t consider the gopher a varmint, but just another of the wildlife critters in our desert. I reserve the right to reconsider its varmint status if it starts to devour some of Damsel’s cacti and veggies. Click on the image to enlarge.
UPDATE: Thanks to the keen observation skills of reader and friend Crotalus, we have determined that this is not a gopher at all, but rather, a Round Tailed Ground Squirrel.
I’ve seen pocket gophers before. They have much smaller eyes, large shovel-like front paws, and a very short nearly hairless tail. This looks more like some kind of ground squirrel.
Very good eye, Crotalus. The pamphlet we consulted did not have photos, but rather, illustrations. I did find a match on Wikipedia – Round-tailed Ground Squirrel:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round-tailed_ground_squirrel
I thought it might be a Round-tail, but I wasn’t sure. Good find on Wikipedia.
I used to have a problem with woodchucks eating up my garden. They wouldn’t eat much of the butternut squash but they sure bit their teeth into many of the squash before hitting onto other vegies that they consumed. Eventually I grew cabbage along three sides of the garden (4th side was the fence) and the woodchucks never seemed to pass this demarcation line…but eat cabbage…the gorged themselves with it.
Norm
ps: I’ve never grown cabbage for myself…always for the critters. Seeds were cheap and watering was done with a sprinkler that over shot the garden anyway so might as well make the water useful.