{"id":58584,"date":"2023-08-16T12:27:06","date_gmt":"2023-08-16T16:27:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=58584"},"modified":"2023-08-16T12:27:11","modified_gmt":"2023-08-16T16:27:11","slug":"couple-finds-vehicles-nibbled-by-an-unknown-creature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2023\/08\/couple-finds-vehicles-nibbled-by-an-unknown-creature\/","title":{"rendered":"Couple finds vehicles \u201cnibbled\u201d by an unknown creature"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For more than a year, one Lee County couple has been trying to solve the mystery of what could possibly be damaging their vehicles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Drescher\u2019s live off Hyde Park Drive in Lehigh Acres. Roughly a year ago, Regina Drescher first noticed damage to her brand-new Honda. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI just came home one afternoon and just noticed something was weird about the plastic,\u201d she said. \u201cSo, I went to check it out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

That\u2019s the moment she discovered what would be a year-long hunt for answers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On both sides of her windshield, it looks like something pecked its way through hard plastic. On the other side, it looks like something was nibbling away at the rubber seal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt looked like it had been attacked by something,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then Regina and her husband, Scott, found yet another clue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cThe paint was all scratched up like something was trying to get down in there,\u201d Regina said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s sort of been one of those things that we just wrote off and said we have no idea,\u201d added Scott. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is\u2026 until now, a year later, when it happened again. This time it was to Scott\u2019s pickup truck. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJumped up and looked on the top of my truck and saw the damage,\u201d Scott said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wait a minute. Could it really be the same thing that happened to Regina\u2019s car a year ago? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPut two and two together, and it\u2019s got to be the same thing,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, who or what is behind this? It turns out it\u2019s not a big scary animal or even a not-so-nice neighbor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather, it\u2019s two small birds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI took a picture of them and when I zoomed in on the picture I could see them nibbling on his sunroof,\u201d Regina said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The birds are Crested Caracaras<\/a>, a protected migratory bird that\u2019s native to Southwest Florida. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Dreschers have one big question answered, but now there\u2019s an even bigger question: why? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m befuddled. I don\u2019t know,\u201d Scott said. \u201cI don\u2019t know what they could be going for. I don\u2019t know what the attraction to car trim is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if they\u2019re after some kind of bug or something,\u201d Regina added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shorebird experts at the Sanibel Captiva Conservation Foundation told NBC2 that they\u2019re not exactly sure either, which makes it even harder to prevent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe like having them around, but we don\u2019t want them chewing on our cars,\u201d Regina said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She\u2019s now parking her car in the garage. Meanwhile for Scott\u2019s truck, they might buy a wooden owl to deter the birds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s bizarre to have a bird eating your car,\u201d Scott said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For more than a year, one Lee County couple has been trying to solve the mystery of what could possibly be damaging their vehicles.  The Drescher\u2019s live off Hyde Park… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":58585,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,32],"tags":[2510],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58584"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58584"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58586,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58584\/revisions\/58586"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}