For anyone who has open man-made water sources on their property, wildlife escape ramps are very important.

What is a wildlife escape ramp?  Wildlife escape ramps are ramps or other structures that allow wildlife that fall into the water to escape from water troughs or buckets that otherwise have side that are too steep for animals to climb out on their own.

Completed Wildlife Escape Ramp in the bucket.

For water sources with shallow sloping sides (such as most bird baths), wildlife escape ramps are not necessary as animals can climb out over the edge as the water is shallow near the edge.  However, for water sources with steep sides (such as most livestock water troughs), wildlife escape ramps are needed to help any animals that fall in and are unable to climb out because of the steep sides.

A couple of weeks ago, a juvenile bird drowned in one of our water troughs and a toad was unable to climb out of one of the other water buckets (we got the toad out in time). In addition to causing the deaths of animals that fall in, dead animals in the water troughs can spread disease to the livestock, and even when discovered within a day, requires the water trough to be emptied, cleaned and then refilled.

We researched solutions and the most useful solution was to build wildlife escape ramps.

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With the long grass in the pastures, it is a perfect habitat for a variety of small snakes. The small snakes eat a variety of bugs, worms, toads and some of the larger ones even help keep the vole and other rodent populations in check.

I came across a pile of garter snakes hanging out near one of our animal sheds. I was quick enough to get a few pictures and a short video before they all slithered underneath the shed and out of sight.

Click through for more pictures of some snakes and another surprise visitor.

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