The AGA students are not eligible to win, since they are attending anyway, but writing an essay was part of a school assignment.

#1
HOW I TAKE CARE OF THE WILDLIFE IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD

I live in the western part of Maryland. We have deer, all kinds of birds, pine (or sometimes called red squirrels) squirrels , rabbits and occasionally a bear. I love to watch and take care of them.

I help get the wood together for our outdoor stove that we heat with. This year we fixed a special place in the woodpile to feed the squirrels and also the birds. We left a small section open where we stack the wood to set a white container to put seeds and nuts in for the birds and squirrel to eat (The nuts we gathered last fall for them). I helped put a piece of metal on the wood at the top of this so the seed container even has a roof to keep the weather off of it. We have two squirrels that I have named Mutt and Jeff that stay in the woodpile. It is so much fun to watch them eat and play all over the woodpile. I can do this by looking out our living room window where outside of it is the woodpile. Sometimes the birds come and they and the squirrels chase each other around.

My Mom helped me make suet out of peanut butter and other ingredients in it. Then we put it in a suet container and hung it underneath the edge of the woodpile so the birds could enjoy it. They loved it so much. We ran out and bought one from the store that they hardly even ate so we made them another homemade one.

We gathered some big pinecones last year and I helped put them in a bag. One morning Mom went and got them and we put them on newspapers on the kitchen table. Mom helped us spread peanut butter on them and then she put containers of wild birdseed in them and we rolled the peanut butter cones in it. I tied some string on them and hung them in the trees all around the yard.

My Mom loves to eat an apple everyday and I ask her to save the peelings for another special animal we have here. I named him Thumper and he (I really am not sure it is a he but I think it is) is a rabbit. I take the peelings out and put them where I know he will get them. He loves them. The men from the sewer had left this long piece of pipe here and Thumper made his home in it. It is under our big pine tree in the front of the house so I put the peelings right there for him and then I watch from our patio doors as he gobbles them up.

In the summer time I help plant red flowers for the hummingbirds. I put water in containers too so they will have something to drink. We also plant sunflower seeds in the garden and let them dry for the birds and squirrels to eat. Mom lets me put the seeds in the round. Sometimes before we get them dried the birds eat them right from the flower in the garden. They just love them so much.

It is so much fun to take care of all the birds and animals here, I love to watch them and know I can help them. I almost forgot. We have had a lot of snow this year. After each snow I have Mom save the old bread and crackers. She helps me mash them and then we go outside and throw it all around on top of the snow so the birds and animal can get it.

Submitted by B----

 

#2

HOW I TAKE CARE OF THE WILDLIFE IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD

I live at a school that has a farm. We have lots of animals, like cows, horses, and chickens. We also have rabbits. I help take care of them. But I also help to take care of some wild animals too. We have a pond on our farm, and every summer, wild geese land there, make nests, and raise goose families. In the evenings, we go down to the pond and throw the geese bits of bread and crackers. Not a lot, because Hitty J---says that it isn't good for them to eat too much of that kind of food, because it isn't very nutritional. But we throw them some. We have a huge pretend plastic goose that is tied on a string. Sometimes the wild geese swim right up to the pretend goose, and try to get it to fly away with them. That's always funny.

Sometimes, the geese dive way down under the water. They like to eat weeds from the pond bottom. Yuck. Last year, one mother goose had eight little goslings (this means baby goose). When they went for a swim on the pond, the mother goose would go first, and her babies would swim in a line behind her, and the father goose would be at the end.

Submitted by Hitty IR----- (an AGA Student)

 

#3
HOW I TAKE CARE OF THE WILDLIFE IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD

I help take care of wild rabbits. In the summer, we trim back the brush along our nature trails, and pile the brush off in an out of the way spot. The rabbits like to live in the brush. Sometimes, in the winter, we take vegetable scraps to the rabbits. They eat them all up. We never see them in the winter, but we see their tracks. In the summer, sometimes we see some in the clover patch at the end of the horse paddocks. They don't always eat the vegetable scraps we leave in the summer. Mrs. P--- says that's because they have a lot to eat in the summer, mostly from her garden. It makes her mad when they eat her new peas. It doesn't make me mad. They can have all the peas they want as far as I'm concerned.

Rabbits are native to our area, and are usually brown in color. But we have a lot of wild rabbits that have bits of white in their fur. This is because many years ago, one of our rabbits got loose from the pens and joined the wild rabbits. It had lots of babies, and some of them are still here today.

Submitted by Hitty A-- (an AGA Student)

 

#4
How I Take Care Of The Wildlife In My Neighborhood

Spring is here and our animal friends are waking from hibernation and returning from warmer places. I look forward to their return every year and do my best to make them feel welcome and help them settle in for the summer.
We have many animal friends that help us in our gardens and orchards and I do all I can to make their jobs easier.

The Washington area is largely a fruit producing area and the farmers enlist the help of honey bees to pollinate their trees and make their honey for us. I have made sure that their hives are tidy and in good repair. The lady bugs are also on their way back to Leavenworth to help rid our vegetable gardens of destructive insects so I have made sure that the Lady Bug Inn is ready for them. They will need a comfortable place to rest after their hard days work in the garden. In the evenings, it is quite enjoyable to sit and listen to the music of the lady bug band.

By the end of winter, the woodland animals' food supply is running pretty low, so I always keep a garden with lettuce and carrots for the rabbits and deer and a fresh supply of pine cones for the squirrels. I stock the bird feeders with sunflower and other seeds and make sure I always have a bowl of fresh strawberries for my little hedgehog friends.
Summers are very busy here, caring for the animals, but they bring me so much joy and they work so hard for us, it is the least I can do.

Hitty A-----

 

#5

HOW I TAKE CARE OF THE WILDLIFE IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD

by Hitty L---- H------


Well, of course I can’t do it all myself. The other Hittys and I have a lot to take care of, living as we do at the edge of the arboretum here in Oregon. Our main responsibility lies with the smaller creatures - the slugs and beetles. They, of course, think they’re perfectly capable of taking care of themselves. The poor things are deluded. We’’re constantly having to herd the slugs off the brick path so they won’t get stepped on. Telling them that someone’s coming doesn’t do the job. It takes them half the day just to get to the other side! Slugs are so determined!

Slug wrangling is quite a production. We have to wrap them in a fallen leaf (so we don’t get sticky - Hitty J--- once, in an emergency, picked one up with her bare hands! Her pegs got sticky and she couldn’t lift her arms for a week!) After we wrap the slug, two or three of us haul the it to the edge of the brick path and throw it over into the mulch. They like mulch. They DO think they’re independent, though. One wandered over to the neighbor’s house after one of their human parties. It found a half-empty glass of beer. By the time we discovered it, the poor thing could only float and burp. We had to use a block and tackle to get it out! Took the creature most of a week to recover.

The beetles, at least, are not sticky. They’re just as opinionated as the slugs and they WILL crawl in under the back door! Years ago a beetle named Black made his way the whole distance to the pantry! We soon heard the chomping noises and herded him out again. Still, the stories of the unlimited bounty tasted by that beetle have lived on among the beetle community and every so often a young one will try for the pantry again. Usually they get lost well before they reach the pantry door and we can just give them directions that lead them around the dining table and out again under the back door. Word is beginning to get around the beetle community that the pantry is just a tall tale invented by Black.

Once in a while we are called upon to help out with one of the larger creatures. The little birds, sated with birdseed from the feeder, sometimes get confused and try to fly through the windows. They get a terrible headache and we have to sit with them and keep them warm until they can fly again. Last winter was very cold. One night, in the middle of a long freeze, the squirrel named Boo came right up and scratched on the window. He didn’t do it politely with two paws. He flew at the window and scrabbled wildly with all four paws at the same time. I went to the door and asked him what his problem was. He said that he was thirsty and all the water was frozen.

The other Hittys and I had a meeting to decided how to help. Clearly we couldn’t let the animals come in to use the sink!
Hitty O------ had the winning idea. We gathered together all the dollhouse teapots, the thimbles and the empty bottle caps. All the Hittys and the Thompsons lined up to form a bucket brigade between the sink and an old plastic dish in the yard. We filled that dish with warm water twice a day for the rest of the freeze. Boo was very grateful. He’s always trying to give us pine nuts and special sticks in his gratitude. WE tell him it would be better if he stopped digging in the flower pots. You really can’t tell a squirrel anything!
Yours lovingly,
Hitty L-----
#6

HOW I TAKE CARE OF THE WILDLIFE IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD

We live in the city so we don't get to see much wild life, but sometimes out cat Pookie pretends he is a wild cat inside the house. He is a sweet cat and never picks us up or anything. He likes to go outside but mostly has to stay in because of cars and wild dangers like that.


Yesterday he was on the back porch and brought a lizard inside for us to see. We put the lizard outside and he scurried away. Pookie said he was just pretending he was a wildlife officer so we would take care of the lizards because they do eat mosquitos and little pesty bugs!

We do have a bird feeder and a bird bath in the yard, but mostly the squirrels chase away the birds and eat their food. We went to the library for some books to find out how to make them share because we do hear the birds singing every morning when we wake up. They are so pretty.

So I guess that is it for the wild life in the city. I didn't count how many words I wrote because I am afraid the computer is going to bump me off line and besides here comes Mom!

#7


HOW I TAKE CARE OF THE WILDLIFE IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD

I live in California by a big, wide river at the foot of a big mountain. Although our still unfinished house is inside a big house in a town neighborhood, it is on the edge of town and we have lots of wildlife here. Some wild things come and go like the raccoons and possoms in the night when they cannot be seen. Once a baby possom got caught in a drawer in our garage. While it was very cute, you should have SEEN the big teeth it had. I kept my distance as my person opened the door so it could leave!


Some wildlife we really take care of, like the hummingbirds, pretty yellow finches and sparrows who eat at the feeders that we keep full of nectar or their favorite seeds. To keep them safe we also buy sunflower seeds for the crows and blue jays and put them on a tree stump in the yard away from the feeders.


However, we have a real problem with some new squirrels that have recently moved into our neighborhood. They do funny things and I love to watch them out the window. We don't feed them though because our person says that there are enough nuts in some of the trees here for them to eat. They do try to eat from the bird feeders though. It's funny to see such furry big things go straight down the chain that a feeder is hanging from. You'd think they would fall.
Every morning we go for a walk that our person says is 3 miles long. We walk along a canal which is like a cement river and it runs through the hills and meadows that are filled with wild and not-so-wild life. First we feed two cats who live in the bushes and are very friendly. My person says some people call them "feral", but she prefers to think of them as two bachelors who are living off the kindness of friends.


Ducks live in the canal and we take them their breakfast every morning. Right now our person says that the Mama ducks are sitting on their eggs, and that's why all we are seeing are the Daddy ducks. Every year it is wonderful to see the Mama ducks with their babies. They move so fast and stick so close to their Mama in the water that they look like they are walking on the water!


Last year our person's husband rescued 9 duck babies that were caught in a hole behind the wall of the canal. We were walking by the area and the Mama duck didn't fly away when we got close like the ducks usually do. She made a lot of noise when she saw us coming and only flew to the other side of the canal when she saw that we noticed her babies were in trouble. The husband climbed over the tall wire fence and reached down into the water-filled hole and scooped out one baby, but his hand was so big the other babies were frightened and swam way back in the back of the hole and he couldn't reach them. When he put the one baby in the water, it skittered across the canal to it's Mama.


Everyone puzzled over how to get the rest of the babies out but we noticed that every time the husband took his hand away, they came back to where the sun was shining into the hole. The husband used his big hands to dig out some dirt and make a slope that he thought maybe they could walk up and out, but they were still scared. He tried putting some big rocks near the ramp, but the rocks only sunk deeper into the water. Then my person's friend found a cardboard drink box nearby in the bushes and the husband flattened it and put it on his dirt ramp. He then stood back away from the hole where the babies couldn't see him and one by one they marched up the ramp, jumped into the canal and skittered across to their Mama! We all laughed and cheered! Much later for Father's Day our person had a shirt made for the husband with little ducks on it and the words "Duck Lover to the Rescue".

Sometimes on our walks we also see coyotes, foxes and other birds like white or blue herons. We always stop and stand and watch so that we don't disturb their wild ways. This morning we saw our first bunny ever and it looked like a baby bunny to me. It was very small and cute. These kinds of wildlife we don't feed or really care for other than respecting their wonderful space. But should any of our wild friends need our help I think they know we are there for them.

Submitted by H----

 

#8

HOW I TAKE CARE OF THE WILDLIFE IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD

I live in the Wild Northwest of Montana. We have such a wonderful variety of animals here, from the few remaining Bison herds living in protection at Glacier National Park & Yellowstone National Park. Without much effort you can easily see Elk, moose, antelope, long horn sheep, deer, both black & grizzly bears, mountain lions, wolves, eagles, hawks as well as smaller wildlife like rabbits, squirrels and gophers and too many birds to name. I only shoot animals with a camera, never a gun. I always heed the Rangers warnings not to feed the bears, and if you run across one in the woods, do not run or appear aggressive to the bear. I make lots of noise while hiking in bear country; this scares the bears away. I help set out seed & corn in feeders for the birds and squirrels and we leave salt licks out for the deer. Mom says we need to help the animals through the hard winters here, since man has destroyed so much of the animal's natural habitats. I like seeing the animals eating and feeling safe in our small area of the Big Sky Country.

S--------

 

#9

HOW I TAKE CARE OF THE WILDLIFE IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD

All animals, big and small, and insects interest me in my neighborhood. I like to go out among them to see what I can do to help them. I'm the type that if anything looks the least bit hungry, I am going to feed it. The wildlife in my Oklahoma neighborhood include turkeys, squirrels, turtles, regular toads, horned toads, birds, lizards, snakes, rabbits and all kinds of little insects.

I planted some fragrant flowers at the front of my house to attract the tiny hummingbirds so that they can feed on their sweet nectar. I just love to watch them flit from flower to flower drinking until their little hearts are content. In my backyard, I have a bird feeder hanging from a tree. I make sure that it is always filled with bird seed, especially sunflower seeds since a lot of birds prefer them. We get all kinds of birds coming in for a meal. We have even seen some red birds and blue birds and once in awhile we will run across a woodpecker. We have even had an occasional owl or two.

A thing called a toad house sits in my garden. It gives the toads a place to rest while eating bugs from the garden plants. I always find the tiniest little horned toads in my yard each year. They are less than an inch long and adorable. I make sure that none of the neighborhood children disturb them so that they can feel safe in my yard.

Once in awhile a group of turkeys will show up on my front lawn. My lawn isn't sprayed with insecticides, so the turkeys can find some nice juicy bugs for a meal. I also scatter bread crumbs for the birds, bugs or any other living creature that might need some nourishment. I don't like to see anything go hungry.

In the summer time, I like to watch the locust (cicada) shed their skins and hang upside down to dry their wings. They are folded up tight and then they start opening their wings. This always amazes me no matter how many times I have seen it. It's almost as if they are touched by magic. Seems like they always like to do this late at night; maybe so the birds won't see them. I like to watch to make sure that they are safe and sound and get to fly away to start a life in their new bigger clothes.

I have a heart for any creature, great or small, and do everything I can to see that they have what they need. This is what a true fulfilled life is all about.

 

#10

HOW I TAKE CARE OF THE WILDLIFE IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD



Hi, my name is Hitty G----- and I live in the northwest part of Oklahoma. My family and I have horned toads in our backyard. They eat mainly ants, so I make sure that none of the humans spray pesticide and make the horned toads go hungry.

Each Spring, I help my family plant a flower garden to provide the humming birds, bees and butterflies with nectar. We also keep a blue bird bath among the flowers and it is my job to keep it cleaned and filled with fresh water.

I like to spend my free time gathering pine cones and putting peanut butter and birdseed on them. I then hang them from our trees for the birds to enjoy.

In our neighborhood, we have turkeys that flock on my front lawn every once in awhile. I love it when they come because I get to see my favorite turkey which I named Gobbles. Gobbles is the smallest turkey in the bunch. I throw them sunflower seeds.

While I have helped the animals, I have made some friends too. Sadly, we have a lot of stray cats in our neighborhood. I have taken two of them into my home and the others I supply with food and water. I have even placed a cardboard box with a rug in it on my front porch so they can seek shelter. I love to feed and play with them and in return, they purr and brush up against me.

I enjoy taking care of the wildlife in my neighborhood. It always proves to be interesting.

 

#11

HOW I TAKE CARE OF THE WILDLIFE IN MY NEIGHBORHOOD



My name is Hitty Clara and I live in Wind Ridge, Pennsylvania. It is a small village out in the country in south-west Pennsylvania. The Wind Ridge Hittys and I love to help wildlife in our neighborhood. I am small, but can do many things to help. Every year there is a clean-up day at the state park in our town and we all go down to help. The park ranger explained that any trash or debris left in the park can be very dangerous to wildlife. It is exhausting work, but I feel such a sense of accomplishment after I have helped to clean up the park! I also like to help keep the park clean and safe for the wildlife every time I am able to go visit the park.

Our area has plentiful wild turkey, herons, geese, many beautiful songbirds, owls and many more birds. The crows remind me of the original Hitty's adventures! My Mom's grandfather, whom we call Pap Pap, helped me and my young "Mom" build two bluebird houses. We hope that some lovely bluebird families will move in and feel at home.

Raccoons, opossum, skunks, squirrels, chipmunks and groundhogs frequent our yard. We especially know when the skunks have been here! We keep our garbage can lids tied down so that the critters can't get in to eat something that may be harmful to them. We leave ears of corn and other vegetables out for them instead. I think they would rather eat healthy food anyway!

One time Hitty Alice and I went to the park to set out some apples for the deer and had quite an adventure! One of our apples rolled down a hill (it is very hilly around here!)


and it splashed into the water. It started floating out into the lake and was soon to be lost forever! I was sad because that particular apple was the one we especially picked out for our little deer friend whom we call Sandy. I spotted a child's toy sailing boat tied on the lakeshore and immediately came up with a brilliant plan, much to Hitty Alice's dismay! So we untied the boat, climbed aboard and tried to follow the floating apple. We soon found out that wanting a boat to go one way, and ACTUALLY making it go that way are two very different realities! First we tried swishing our arms around in the water, but all we got for that effort was wet! Then we tried fanning the sails with our bonnets. That was not successful either. At last I resorted to a very hearty and robust call for help. As I was yelling, Hitty Alice said "Shhhh! What is that buzzing sound?" I stopped and listened, but I didn't hear a thing. The all at once, out of nowhere, a beautiful dragonfly came soaring over us. It startled us so, and we tumbled backward in the boat and landed in a very unladylike heap of up-turned petticoats and bloomers!

The beautiful dragonfly landed on the top of the largest sail. He was a polite gentleman and asked if he could be of any help to us. I told him that we would be most grateful for any help he could provide. He thought for a moment and then asked us kindly to hold on tight. The next thing we knew, he started flapping his rainbow wings while still holding onto the sail. The little boat began to move in the direction of the rapidly disappearing apple! In no time, we had rescued the apple and our new friend Louie the Dragonfly had returned the little boat, and two happy girls back to shore.

 

 

 

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