Anyone get wild living creatures in their window wells?
I thought I'd x-post this here, since there might be a few amphibian fans/experts/interested here as well...Let's talk "inadvertent" pets (wild) and how one cares for them...
It seems with the summer monsoons especially active in Colorado that I now have as many as three dozen Woodhouse toads of varying size from less than a half inch to probably 3 1/2 inches living in my window well. For those of you unfamiliar with window wells, they offer emergency ingress/egress to the basement, some light, and allow you to legally finish it off per building codes... Mine has a grate per the photo below, which is great for keeping baby rabbits and other larger animals out.
It seems they are contentedly eating on whatever bugs are down there--(about five feet deep well lined with large stones over the dirt) that abutts the garden window in my basement. I might have had them in previous years, but never so many I noticed... and a hole in the screen caused some to get stuck between screen and glass--which I have since rescued. I guess they are getting enough to eat down there and I spray it daily with a little water to keep it somewhat moist down there.
Yesterday, I see I have a newcomer, a black and yellow tiger salamander, which is both endangered and the official state amphibian...LOL All of them feed on bugs, which I'm happy to accommodate.
Handsome little feller, isn't he?
So here's my dilema...As happy as I am to host them, I doubt they will survive winter down there and I'd really like to find a way to help them out on their own in order to decide where they want to be. They clearly can not climb up the metal lining of the window well. I'd be happy to host all comers to my little patio garden. I even have a little toad house there underneath the various plants and ground cover. Yes, I could climb down there and spend hours trying to catch them, but I stand the chance of stepping or otherwise injuring them and besides I really want them to have the choice where they live.
I thought about putting a 2x6 board down there, but somehow I don't see them being able to cling to it to climb up....
Anyone else have these or similar little guys living in your window well? Any ideas on how to help them out?
Oh, and if anyone does, I can confirm that these little guys won't hurt you, but you don't want your cat/dog to ingest them as they do secrete an irritant... People shouldn't really handle directly either, but just wash hands if you do. They can eat a lot of bugs including mosquitoes and their larvae, so we should really consider them welcome additions to around the home.
= new reply since forum marked as read
burrow, given the layer of rock over the soil at the bottom of a window well. But, I am aware of a publication that followed a lone big toad for more than 20 years in some sort of window well in Colorado....
I think if I can afford them a way out, I won't feel badly about their survival... I' hate to have to clean up dozens of little skeletons come spring. 
try the damn kitchen! 
wild critters in the house 
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1018647601
a 2 x 4 or a tree branch wrapped kind of loosly with chicken wire would probably work as an escape ladder
I tie a large branch to a t post next to steel livestock troughs so critters can get back out if they fall in.
MAJORLY jealous of your salamanders, not wet enough here for them, but toads we got!
by the way, that is an 18 inch saucer 
My late Dad always had a (bizarre) fondness for toads--used to sit outside and talk to them!
So, I take it as my responsibility to find them adequate housing--
