My groundhog clan has been chased off. When all the wood boards and stones over the animal burrow area were moved, it turned out it wasn’t a tunnel at all, but a closed ditch or divot. It must have been a last-minute place to give birth for the mother groundhog and she never got to digging further into the yard.

There’s my sonar beeping stick in the ground that deters them now from returning, and the ditch they dug is loaded with wood and rocks, pretty much obliterated. I saw one of the young groundhog babies standing in the yard today looking at that corner of the house, but then he just ran off. They have to use their other hidey-holes in the neighborhood and avoid this one now.

This may be the end of their saga. I don't expect to run into them at social events or walks now.