Home › Forums › Campfire Forum › Winter Critter Damage?
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OMG, the rabbits around here have made the yard look like a P.O.W. camp. Everything is gnawed down to nubs and inner bark. I could commercially bag rabbit droppings they’re so thick. They came in with the deep snow for the bird feeder seed. I knew they were going to chew stuff and don’t deny them a living, but maybe I should have been a little more murderous? Nah….it’ll recover, most of it anyway and good fertilizer anyway. Anything chew you guys up this winter?
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here on the back edge of a modest size town, the many raptors, stray cats and those feline allowed to roam at will, have kept our rabbit population down to nearly nil. Squirrels are aplenty in this neighborhood though and they’re always chewing car wires or something they ought not.
Lots and lots of bird feeders to keep all critters well fortified.
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YES paleoman, we’re putting in our greens and early peas, and battling the SLUGS! They’re worse than deer cause you can’t put up a fence (unless its solid copper… yeah not gonna happen). I’ve never had to deal with anything like this before. They have eaten a 15′ row of beet seedlings in one night!
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Scott
Great avatar photo very fitting:D. We have so many critters here that damage is just part of it –except for my wife’s ongoing battle with the squirrels and raiding the bird feeder:):lol:lol:
Spring almost here–the turkey’s are back and bears out of their dens, saw two yesterday. Today while running a tour with two guests on our wheeled rig+ 13 dogs in front 3 turkey crossed the trail–Gunny in single lead alerted then went back to his job–all the other dogs are looking at the birds but Gunny pulled them forward down the trail. Proud of his performance. Now that could have been some damage:shock:.
For those of you here abouts winter ain’t over yet cold tomorrow and some snow possible. Darn tired of it.
Mike
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Dont have too many rabbits up here but I worry about the deer. They have been buried in deep snow since early December here. Still have a foot and a half everywhere and it was the coldest winter ever. Hopefully the winter kill won’t be as bad as I’m expecting.
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R2 wrote: Scott, winter has been hard on ya huh. 😀 One of your drawings I’m wanting to put on bathroom wall?:D
Yup. My wife said quit with the wannabe homo sapiens thing and get real. Yes, I’ve struggled for years on coming out, but, it’s true, I am a Neanderthal man:lol:
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Mike, they only call them bird feeders so folks will buy them.
Paleo, love the portrait. dwc
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I can’t say this is critter damage though I do find it amusing .
We live in a tiny community ,,,10 houses,,,which is on a state highway . My neighbors house is about 60 yards away and they have one of those locust trees that shed the long flat seed pods each fall.
Back in the fall the deer would move across our two properties during the night and feed on the pods ,,,,poop in my yard and browse in the remains of my garden .Then the snow and ice came and there were unmistakable tracks and many times within 10 feet of the house . They would cross the highway and go right past the other neighbors barns and across the bean field.
Yesterday , while wandering around the yard shooting at leaves and such I found a big pile of coyote scat . My estimation is the ‘yote had taken up the deers feeding route in hopes of a meal .
I too have seen where the rabbits have eaten the bark off small saplings this year , but not here around the house. Now the two rabbits we had homesteading our 1 acre have been turned to vittles by some predator ,,,,,probably one or more of the neighbors fifty cats . I knew I should have harvested them 😳
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paleoman wrote: [quote=R2]Scott, winter has been hard on ya huh. 😀 One of your drawings I’m wanting to put on bathroom wall?:D
Yup. My wife said quit with the wannabe homo sapiens thing and get real. Yes, I’ve struggled for years on coming out, but, it’s true, I am a Neanderthal man:lol:
Upscale cave with closets uh? Cool.
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We’re still pretty well snowed in up by me. The cold won’t let up and the thaw is progressing very slowly. We have had a fox and a bobcat come thru this winter hunting the squirrels at the bird feeders which was neat to see but so far all our shrubbery is intact. I did see a welcome and encouraging sight this past week. On my way to the airport I drove along a county highway that was running east-west. The north side of the highway was literally covered with whitetails! They’ve obviously been breaking out of their yards and heading for the sunny spots to get at the springs first exposed grasses. I saw at least 100 deer! I almost got emotional after such a long and severe winter as we’ve had! What a miracle these animals are!
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R2 wrote: [quote=paleoman][quote=R2]Scott, winter has been hard on ya huh. 😀 One of your drawings I’m wanting to put on bathroom wall?:D
Yup. My wife said quit with the wannabe homo sapiens thing and get real. Yes, I’ve struggled for years on coming out, but, it’s true, I am a Neanderthal man:lol:
Upscale cave with closets uh? Cool.
You could always check out one of the Flintstones ‘toons:D Hope your bathroom came out good. I have to do that too before winter totally calls it quits.
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The heavy hitters around our MT place are the hairy woodpeckers. They make a good argument of aluminum siding. Our house is full of holes now, and certain family measures are lobbying for termination with extreme prejudice with the .410. Trouble is, I’ve hunted all kinds of game birds all over the world and consider myself an excellent wing-shot, but I have never seen any bird harder to hit on the wing than a woodpecker. How the Thompson brothers did it with longbows is beyond me.I can watch the nuthatches for hours though as they carefully stash seeds and bugs into the minute cracks next to the woodpecker holes–too cool.Other than that it’s the usual assortment of bunnies and deer, plus an occasional lion track in the coulee. Let’s face it: during hard winters wildlife eats what it can get and if we are going to build houses in their backyards we can’t complain when they do what they have to do to survive. The only exception to this enlightened attitude is the feral cats,which wantonly destroy more wildlife than human hunters ever could. Shoot them all, but be cool about it. If the Cat People find out, they can be more dangerous than Al Queda. They scare me so badly I’m going to sign this with an alias. Best, Gene Wensel
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