Animals in trees

mattwisconsin

mattwisconsin

Location
Milwaukee, WI
How do you guys deal with animals nesting inside hollow trees in removals?

Today we had a raccoon with 4 babies in a hollow elm, probably 40 feet up. Luckily they all survived but it was a tough situation.
 
I will generally come back to finish the job once the natal nest is vacated, if it is feasible.

I had quite a few birds nesting in stored trees this spring (the tied up crowns are very appealing nest sites), and I had to wait for the birds to vacate the nests before planting these trees. It was difficult because the species were specifically designated for certain spots, and we had to go back to plant them.

Unfortunately, two out of three nests failed. One tree blew over in the yard, and another nest got washed out by a ridiculous downpour we had last Saturday.

I had squirrels move into my shed during a horrific winter storm this year (their nest was blown out of the tree, and there was 12" of snow on the ground), and when I went to finally evict them (mid-march) it was too late. There were two little thumb-sized babes in there. They were finally finished with the natal nest last week, and there are thankfully out of my hair.

I am a softie when it comes to animals.

-Tom
 
We do whatever we have to do to ensure the animals' safety. We take orphaned or injured animals to wildlife rehabilitators. We leave trees if possible. It's always a difficult situation when you're under production pressure.
 
Adult animals are pretty easy to scare to come right out and leave the tree. At least this is what has always happened for me. I am always careful around hollow spot, learned by staring a racoon right in the face to probe with a stick or handsaw rather then looking. If being stubborn usually after a few cuts the vibration of the saw and that of limbs coming down and smacking the trunk is enough to get them to leave.

I have been lucky so far when it comes to babies either it be birds, squirrels or coons. Always tend to hear them crying after the parent leaves and saw running riles them up. I do my best to make smaller cuts around the possible nesting area to remove the nest along with the babies by putting them in a rope bag and leaving it close to the removed tree but out of harms way for the parents to come back to relocate them once the job is done.
 
I was supposed to remove a limb today but I found a Robin's nest with eggs in it. I explained to the homeowner what was up and suggested reduction cuts and thinning. They were very happy to save the nest and settle with a compromise on the previously determined pruning specs. I felt good about it.
 
We avoid the animals as much as possible, to come back later. Sometimes its unavoidable. We fell a tree that had a flying squirrel in it not too long ago, we had no idea. The squirrel ran up to the highest limb on the fallen tree. We very carefully hand sawed the limb and lowered it down. I caught the squirrel in a hoodie, and relocated to another tree. cool little buggers up close.

Another tree I was in had what I thought was an abandoned crow nest in it. I gave it a little shake and nothing, so I ejected it out of the tree to see a large baby squirrel hanging on to the lower shrubbery with one paw. Felt kinda bad, but momma showed up and ran off with the little guy.

Last week I went up an alder with my handsaw to take just a few lower limbs and suckers. The boss came over with the 44 and started dealing with the brush. I took a few steps back to disconnect and take my saddle off. I was standing less than 10' from a NEW born baby fawn curled up in the brush. We killed the saw and tip-toed out.
 
I came face-face with a racoon and it's (cubs?) before, just left the tree for a week, came back and nest was vacated. I know you can't always leave for a week, but luckily everyone agreed to the eviction before I knocked the maple over. Good thing to always be tied in, I woulda fallen off this tree, only 15' up, but those guys scared me!

The following pictures are a different day, different animal encounter, well they're pretty self-explanatory. Enjoy!
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It depends on the animal, and the client. Squirrels time is not wasted on, I have scared a few momma 'coos out off the nest and bagged the kits up to lower down. We put them in bushes to the direction the mama ran off, either she moves them or the feed something else.
 
Something that needs more awareness is the fact that when dealing with any migratory bird, the list is LONG, they come under US Fish and Wildlife regulations. Possessing even a feather from a migratory bird is a federal offense. What is the chance of getting in trouble? Small I guess, but, do you feel lucky?

Most clients understand rescheduling work to accomodate nesting.

Raccoon babies are called kits.
 
Really nice pics.

I was about to fell a evergreen tree that had broken 1/3 of its lenght and clinched itself in a pine tree besides it.
Then i discovered a birds nest in it and decided to cut of the top some 2 meters from the nest.

I am glad that the evergreen is firmly stuck in the other one so i can wait for the birds to clear the nest.
 
Seems like there could be potential of covering the entrance hole and rigging the piece down right side up, in certain situations. If you really wanted to be a good steward, perhaps its possible to attach it to another tree, at a similar height.

There are a lot of wildlife rehabilitation center around that would be able to offer people advice, and or pick-up/ be a drop-off point for the animals either in the log section or otherwise, in case the mother abandons the nest.

I'll try to get my ornithologist friend to view this thread, in case he has some advice for handling bird situation.
 
Raccoon denning season is just about over in my area (New England), the mothers move the kits out and take them on the road. During the rest of the year the raccoons will move from tree to tree, use different hollows different days.

Awesome screech owl shots. Screech owl is similar to raccoons the way they use hollows, once the young are fledged they move around use different hollows each day to sleep, it's a predator avoidance strategy. So if the owls aren't on eggs or don't have young in the hollow is often just a one or two day stand. If you flush them out they'll find another spot to hide out. Owls in North America have most likely fledged their young out of their nests for this season, far north or higher altitude woods they could be still in nesting hollows with young.
-moss
 
[ QUOTE ]
Seems like there could be potential of covering the entrance hole and rigging the piece down right side up, in certain situations. If you really wanted to be a good steward, perhaps its possible to attach it to another tree, at a similar height

[/ QUOTE ]

A good thought but I think the parents would be so flipped out they'd abandon ship at the earliest opportunity. Imagine this... someone comes along and boards up all the windows and doors in your house with plywood while you're inside, then they pick up the house with a crane and move your house a couple miles and put it down. Then they take the plywood off the doors and windows. What do you do? Get out of the house and run like hell!

Birds on nest will abandon eggs with relatively minor disturbance. They can always build a new nest and lay more eggs. The nest placement strategy is based on concealment in plain view, once a predator discovers a nest with eggs it's time for parents to move on. When the young are hatched it's a different story, they'll defend and stay with them through thick and thin, to a point.
-moss
 
FYI that screech owl pole still stands to this day. The owl flew in and out of the cavity throughout the topping (it was dead) operation, and we left it stand as a non-hazardous wildlife snag. Client was all about it after seeing the pictures.
 
I fell a dead Valley Oak trunk the other day and when it hit the ground it split into two. I heard some wimpering and growling and then I saw three baby racoons inside.
 
That is freaking awesome winch! Never saw anything like that in a tree, but I was cutting a very large oak that had one live leader on it over the house. I took alot of the large suckers off it and set a rope. pulled it over and there were bats everywhere. There must of been hundreds! Sad I evicted them but it was cool to see hundreds of bats fly everywhere at once.
 
Killing and saving animals that live in the trees is just part of the job. When we've know an animal is in the hollow part of a limb we will carefully lower it down if they refuse to come out, but there was a time where we didn't realize there was a nest of 3 adult squirrels in a hollow limb of a silver maple and they ended up taking a 60ft midair flight straight to the ground. They all hit hard but managed to immediately get right up and run off without showing sign of injury. Over the years I've probably seen at least a dozen squirrels hit the ground HARD but never seen one not get right up and run. I remember a couple years ago doing a small-medium pine removal and had to send 15-20 starlings through the chipper. Most of the time we just relocate the nest and the momma seems to always come back. I was cutting a large, hollow blown over oak log in half and came literally less than a inch from sawing right through a couple baby coons. We stepped back and the momma relocated the little ones to another tree in about 15min. I would have felt bad if I hit em with the saw. I've accidentally killed my share of animals while working but never from cutting them with a saw.
 
Thanks Dan,
I have video too, it was pretty weird how it floated back and forth looking at me, trying to "size me up." It seems that my photobucket account lost the backup copy I had of the video, so no way to share as of now.

But here are some freaky barn owls instead (not my video)!

http://tinyurl.com/d247me
 
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