The Cardinals and Finches hang around. This is strange...Heading south for the winter
Good but there should be more.they're all out here. Hundreds upon hundreds
This may be the culprit. We have Coopers Hawks and an owl (not exactly sure what kind) in the area. Just after posting this thread I was putting sheets out on the Myers Lemon tree (frost tonight) and when I turned I saw a hawk blast through the feeders and over the house.Have hawks or other predatorials “discovered” your easy pickings bird feeder smorgasbord? The hawk moves in the birds move on … or become lunch.
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Last evening, I heard our chickens singing what I thought was the egg song. It was already dark, about 650pm. Going out to check out the ruckus, I heard something big move in the large oak by the back door and saw the large shadow flying away.Our pair, we have a pair we believe have been residents and breeding for a couple years, has all but scattered the sparrow, chickadee and such to the four winds. We’d find a puff of feathers where a hawk would nail one so we kinda figured they’d find safer spaces. We don’t even fill the feeders any more and have turn the bird bath over. I have seen twice one nail a squirrel and fly off so they still have plenty of food. We hear owls calling back and forth at or after dusk but I haven’t laid eyes on them in 2 summers but I’m guessing they’ve been ”helping” with them also plus the field mice and other nocturnal vermin.
Can’t agree more with this. I despise outside cats for this reason.As mentioned, the Coopers hawk is a songbird predictor. In Leicester I had one move into the area and it effected the song bird population. I left my back yard for the song birds with planting several types of wild bird food. When the hawk moved in he would perch on a 4x4 next to the steps to the lower area. The birds would disappear for a few days until he moved on.
BUT hawks do not devastate the song birds population like domestic cats. The hawk has a much larger range and will move around frequently. They stop killing when they are full. hawks catching birds is a natural thing and nature balances this.
Domestic cats are the ones that are the real problem. If ya gonna have a cat as a pet it should be an inside always animal! Some folks let out their cats out at night and this is a time birds start to settle down. They still make noise and cats can also smell them. A cat will catch a bird play with it like a kick ball until it dies and then move on to another conquest. Multiple kills each time the cat is outside. Cats that are outside most of the time will spend their waking ours doing the same thing. Cats live longer and happier lives inside rather than roaming the neighborhood. And the song bird population survives.
In the last few years there have been articles about 100's of birds falling out of the sky dead at once. Some people believe it is due to 4G or 5G or similar transmissions.I've noticed the amount of songbirds visiting our feeders has been cut to 1/4 of what they used to be. This is in the past month.
Worrying...
Absolutely not. It's climate change and the space aliens jerking us around -- by causing the climate change. Also, they're responsible for the bird flu epidemic. They're sitting up there in their invisible space ships laughing themselves silly.In the last few years there have been articles about 100's of birds falling out of the sky dead at once. Some people believe it is due to 4G or 5G or similar transmissions.
Yeah, we're seeing those plus some doves. Not all the species of woodpeckers around here have put in an appearance yet -- only the red-headed ones, and only a couple of those. But they're all hanging out in the trees, as usual, and talking up a storm. The Piliators (as we call them as an homage to the Terminator), NEVER come to the feeders (since they prefer insects and such), but one did visit our back deck about a year ago and (in about 5 minutes) create an impressive deep 2"x3" hole in a treated 4x4 in order to get some carpenter bee larvae. Those guys are wood wreckers, and we think that one of them may have taken out one of the big red shouldered hawks here last year. They apparently do that on occasion. We found the carcass just inside the tree line around the yard. Nature red in tooth and claw.Today's cast of characters: chickadees; tufted titmice; nuthatch (white breasted, but we've seen brown headed and red-breasted); carolina wren; juncos; Mr. and Mrs. cardinal; blue jays; red-breasted woodpecker.
We need more coyotes, at least temporarily.
Set baited humane traps and drop them off at the humane society?I discovered a neighbor lady has been feeding feral cats, about 5 of them now. Our back yard bird population has dropped precipitously. It may not be that the feral cats are killing them in greater numbers but they may be scaring them out of the area. I told her to stop feeding and attracting the cats but she told me to buzz off. On top of that, new folks have moved in with cats and are letting them roam. We need more coyotes, at least temporarily.
Feed them and they will come.We need more coyotes, at least temporarily.
We get about this same mix, plus downy woodpeckers and house finches. I frequently see hawks (one once flew into my garage and landed practically at my feet) and barred owls in the area. But my main concern is the neighbor who lets her cats roam free, in spite of the local leash law. I chase them out of the yard when I see them, but they prey on chipmunks and baby rabbits.Today's cast of characters: chickadees; tufted titmice; nuthatch (white breasted, but we've seen brown headed and red-breasted); carolina wren; juncos; Mr. and Mrs. cardinal; blue jays; red-breasted woodpecker.
So do you report these infractions? What's the result of reporting them? I know that local leash laws are very scattered/sporadic and contain an amazing variety of wordings. For example, the Chatham Co. animal control ordinances (Ch. 22 of County ordinances) sayin spite of the local leash law.
[I think that should probably be "deemed a nuisance by adjacent property owners or Animal Services," or the grammar doesn't make any sense. But hey, my kids went through Chatham Co. schools until high school. So I know what to expect.]22-4(b) Any cat deemed a nuisance to adjacent property owners or Animal Services may be trapped and brought to Animal
Services as an at large animal.
I've never seen one do any excavating. But one of their most common hunting practices (aside from flying around and screeching) is to sit on a lower branch or fence post and then drop quickly onto the prey that's on the ground. I've seen this a lot in terms of them taking small rodents, snakes, and even birds.I should have added house finches to my list earlier. This morning, had a thrasher come by; that, and a blue jay being a bully.
We've been seeing a hawk for the last few weeks almost daily. Does anyone know whether they will dig for a mole? This one is frequently on the ground and might be after mice or such, but I've not seen what they're pecking at -- I think I'd be able to see a squirrel. But we do have some mole burrows, so ...
No, the owners are very good neighbors otherwise so I'm content to very visibly and loudly chase the cats out of my yard when I see them, even if the neighbors are out in their own yard. If the cats sit on top of the fence, which they occasionally do, I leave them alone because it's my neighbor's fence. But if they climb down on my side I'll run them off until they get into their own yard. The cats seem to be slowly realizing that I am an unpleasant person to be around so they don't come over here as often as they used to.So do you report these infractions? What's the result of reporting them?
Or just not when you can see them. 😂 The cat is a nocturnal (and early morning) hunter, often seen shortly after dawn stalking our feathered friends. I most often see them shortly after I get up, as I'm sipping my coffee, watching the morning news and seeing them stroll casually by our large rec room windows on the way to the feeders. But if you don't see them, it's like they're not there -- except for the occasional bunches of feathers.The cats seem to be slowly realizing that I am an unpleasant person to be around so they don't come over here as often as they used to.