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I’ve taken a lot of ribbing in the past week after I wrote about the grass snake that decided to make its home in my 1989 Ford pickup.

No, I have not traded my truck in for a Viper, although that and Cobra would be a lovely trade, even up. No, I wasn't trying to create an environmentally friendly serpentine belt. And yes, I believe the snake has moved on but it left behind a reminder — a complete skin on top of the radiator.

It seems like the summer of 2008 will go down as the season of the wild animal on our farm. The snake episode is just one of many recent brushes with wildlife. I’ve dealt with bears, raccoons, birds, rabbits, woodchucks, deer and a coyote over the past couple of weeks. There’s been so many nature experiences that I half expect to see the ghost of Marlin Perkins battling a crocodile in our creek.

Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy wildlife immensely, which is one of the reasons my wife and I moved back to the country. I’ll never grow tired of watching deer in the fields around our home.

I do, however, grow very tired of having rude encounters with deer with the front of my car, which I did near Disco last week. There’s nothing you can do when a deer is running full tilt at a perpendicular angle to your car except hold on tight and perhaps utter an expletive or two. The latter really doesn’t help but it's just a natural reaction I have.

Unfortunately that's the second deer for me in the past 10 months. I'm considering discarding the bumper for a railroad tie. If only I had been driving my truck that day …

The rabbits seem exceptionally prolific this year, frolicking and breeding in broad daylight. They just have no sense of morals or decency. I think they're increasing their numbers to plan a massive attack against the 7-foot high fence we put around our vegetable garden this year to stave off both rabbits and deer.

Birds are both a blessing and a curse. We’re fortunate to have a large population of swallows who have taken over the lower barn with their nests. As long as there is daylight the birds are swooping and darting outside, providing us with natural mosquito protection.

However, we also have some bank swallows who think they should be able to build mud nest colonies on our house instead of on the two barns and numerous outbuildings. Nearly every day several weeks ago I had to climb up a ladder and wipe away their mud foundations, which they started over five windows.

We’ve also had some birds who think that making a trip down our stainless steel chimney is somehow a fun thing to do. Even though the chimney is capped and sealed, they crawl through the vent and end up inside our wood stove. We must have let out a couple of dozen birds, trying to herd them out the door. I’m pretty sure some of the dumber ones keep coming back.

Last week I discovered that a woodchuck decided that the gravel floor in my old garage would be a great place to dig a den. I noticed this large mound of sand in my large mound of garage clutter and discovered the woodchuck hole. I dropped some mothballs down in the den and filled in the hole. So far so good.

Also last week while my wife was picking strawberries, she noticed a couple fairly large piles of scat. We suspect a wandering bear decided to sample our berry patch. I put up a game camera in hopes of capturing an image, but nothing so far.

Last week we also had three baby raccoons come up to our patio. The bandits tried to hide against the house in one raccoon ball and stayed there until dark. While they were extremely cute, I know how much damage they can cause and we don't need them hanging around the buildings.

Finally, just a couple of nights ago, we saw a coyote cross the hayfield out our front door about an hour before dark. Coyotes are certainly not rare because we hear them frequently at night, but seeing them during the day near buildings is unusual.

Frankly after all of the animal episodes we’ve had lately, I wasn’t surprised. I just hope it ends on that note because there's a black and white critter with an odoriferous reputation I do not want to encounter.

Chris Hardie is the publisher of River Valley Newspapers Group weekly and shopper division.