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Tony Presley R.I.P
06-08-2018, 05:30 PM
Yesterday when I got home, I found two piles of feathers near one of my feeders. We occasionally have a hawk swoop down to take a bird and I am guessing that is what happened. Here are photos of the feathers. Looks like a black bird and maybe a dove. I hate to see this!

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Marty Gass
06-09-2018, 07:03 AM
We have a pair of hawks living in the wooded area across the street from our back yard. We were over run with various critters. Some getting the attic and then little rat type critters in wood piles. Not so much any more. Occasionally I see some dove feathers but that's just the way nature works. I have to move snakes off the trails in the park when I run so some butthead won't kill them. I have them around my yard and just look out for them. I really like to see all the birds and I am finally fixing my feeders and birdbath and our little pond mostly for the birds. They love the pond. We have flat rocks all around it and try to have some set so the birds can get right down to the water. I had several feeders but the deer kept destroying them. I have to get them higher in the air and figure a way to keep the squirrels from destroying them. Squirrels will empty out a feeder just for fun.
On another note we were having a slight mouse issue in the garage and all of a sudden we don't see them anymore. Two weeks ago I went into the room in the back of the garage and saw an 18" long king snake. Good job little buddy.

AgentOrange
06-09-2018, 04:26 PM
I agree and do not go along.
All the critters have a survival game going on that us humans are seldom into. We don't kill, just buy things others have killed. Some how we feel superior.

In the day my GrandMa would collect/steal eggs and kill a chicken to feed me. She might go to jail for that now.

I feel a need to protect critters I lure into my yard. I go to extremes to do that and see it as a fun hobby. Predators like snakes and hawks are here, but not welcome.

Up the street are humans who will prey on me or you if we become week. Critters have no hate in them. Humans do.
In my yard no critter is allowed to attack another critter, but it happens all the time.

AgentOrange
06-09-2018, 04:31 PM
We have a pair of hawks living in the wooded area across the street from our back yard. We were over run with various critters. Some getting the attic and then little rat type critters in wood piles. Not so much any more. Occasionally I see some dove feathers but that's just the way nature works. I have to move snakes off the trails in the park when I run so some butthead won't kill them. I have them around my yard and just look out for them. I really like to see all the birds and I am finally fixing my feeders and birdbath and our little pond mostly for the birds. They love the pond. We have flat rocks all around it and try to have some set so the birds can get right down to the water. I had several feeders but the deer kept destroying them. I have to get them higher in the air and figure a way to keep the squirrels from destroying them. Squirrels will empty out a feeder just for fun.
On another note we were having a slight mouse issue in the garage and all of a sudden we don't see them anymore. Two weeks ago I went into the room in the back of the garage and saw an 18" long king snake. Good job little buddy.

I am always amazed at people who hate squirrels. They are fun and do less harm than many critters. They don't eat enough to break the bank like a cat or dog.

I hate all spiders and all snakes. If you want them - OK. One strong cat can clean out rats and snakes. Cats love you and snakes - not so much.

Tony Presley R.I.P
06-10-2018, 03:12 PM
In my yard no critter is allowed to attack another critter, but it happens all the time.

I hate to see critters attacking other critters but that is nature and we cannot control most of it. Like on National Geographic, I hate to see a poor zebra being attacked and killed by Lions. I know it is nature and is necessary but I don't want to watch it! I always change the channel when I see that coming. It makes me cringe!

Marty Gass
06-11-2018, 11:53 AM
I like squirrels. I just hate them in my attic. I will have my insulation etc done over this fall and will try to seal it off from the little boogers. To me they are like monkeys. I have seen them clean out one of my old feeders in hours. I have lots of black squirrels in my yard and I had never seen one until I bought this house 14 years ago.

As far as cats, mice and snakes go, my cats do not leave the confines of my house. They do not enter the garage even thought it is attached. My wife is terrified they will get out and get run over. Me too. If I lived in the woods they would go in and out as they pleased. I had a cat many years ago who was indoor and outdoor and she was fine but she was smarter than most of the people I know and ran off any animal that came near my apartment. Dogs, squirrels, other cats it didn't matter. She was the unchallenged ruler of the area. My current cats are fun and the older female is really smart and I think she could hold her own against most other animals it not for getting her fur dirty.
Doubt I will ever have another dog. You have to take care of a dog and I don't take care of anything. I did it all my life and have moved on from that. I loved my dogs and it killed me when they passed so enough of that.

I don't mine seeing what animals do for food. It is part of natural controls. I feel sorry for the little rabbit getting eaten by the hawk or the fish in my pond...not any more as the raccoons ate them. Now we have to kill deer because we ran off the wolves and coyote that culled out the sick and the over population.

AgentOrange
06-11-2018, 05:02 PM
I agree as to Nature. If I did not, it would have no effect.
My yard is small and if anyone claims me being upset when a predator attacks is crap - don't care. Critters in my yard entertain me. My part is to feed them a little and protect them as I can.

To that end I put baffles up to slow down attacks on my bird houses. Is that wrong?
If I see a snake, I don't move it, I kill it.

My 10,000 cats roam free, but are well fed and not much danger to most critters except mice and voles. I don't like mice or voles, and as this is my small yard, I (and the cats) get to choose. Cats are also hell on smaller snakes.

Snakes, mice, voles, coyotes add nothing to my small yard. I really need an automatic shotgun.
Raccoons eat here. I like them. None eat my fish as I dug the pond walls 40" straight down (not like how experts tell you to layer it). I also have a "dusk to dawn" electric wire around it.

Around here people cull the deer. That seems to be efficient. There is no over population.
I plant deer grass in Winter, and have out mineral blocks to lure them so I can shoot them - with my camera.

All critters are welcome here except critters that attack other critters. All my efforts amount to very little, but make me feel better for trying. It was the same when I was a cop and my job was to cull human predators. 30 solid years and there are more now than when I was a rookie.

Back to Tony's feathers.
As my yard is a bird place, it draws hawks. I like to see them as they are exciting. I have had them take right in front of me. I hate that. The big hawks are no problem. It is those tiny ones - Cooper and Sharp-shinned. One hit a window, and I nursed him back to health in a cage I keep for wounded birds.
I hated to turn him lose, but of course did. Here they most times attack my Doves as they are big and juicy.