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Red tails to the rescue
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Posted by anntn6b z6b TN (My Page) on Sat, Oct 31, 09 at 12:50
Our great hunting beast, Ferret-face the Kitty, is now in year three of osteoarthritis. She no longer keeps the baby rabbit population under control in spring in the lower rose beds. Elf the White no longer works the front rose beds for rodents as she has now also earned Pensioner status.
The dog Bonnie, never all that bright, now still chases rabbit scents, but the rabbits have all learned to double back and I see them watching her running in rabbit made circles.
The roses have suffered rabbit damage because of the decline of our IPM team.
Last winter, a couple of Peregrin Falcons started hanging around in winter. Visibility for them was excellent as the hay fields had suffered from drought and there wasn't much cover out surrounding the house.
This year has been a whole lot wetter, and three cuttings of hay were made (The third rotted on the ground, because it didn't stop raining.) Lots of bunny babies above ground. (I expect the voles and moles populations have also surged.)
I am delighted to announce that we are hosting a very large red tailed hawk who is finding easy pickings in and around the rose beds. Yesterday it enjoyed a rabbit. Maybe we can keep it well fed for several weeks. That will make a difference for the roses. The hawk has been here for ten days so far.
Maybe raptor/prey ratios will be good this year.
Should have been a good fall for (shudder) black snakes to lay eggs in the leaf litter. (Repeat to self: black snakes are good.)
Hope your IPM strategies are adapting to your evolving gardens. |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Red tails to the rescue
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| What a fun post and how great for you to be hosting these wonderful birds of prey. Sometime their vocalizing (screaming?) gets to be a bit much but the benefits are great. I love all the little creatures that they're exterminating but there has to be a balance and nature is often cruel. Something's been eating the lower leaves off the roses along the driveway and I'm loving whoever that is a lot less. I applaud your efforts to tolerate the (really cute) black snakes. Just remember: really cute. I hope your new friends stick around since your sweet pets are obviously no longer up to snuff for that task. I'm sure the still know how to give love and kisses. Ingrid |
RE: Red tails to the rescue
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| We've always felt the Air Force to be among the better garden allies. The amazing thing is to be outside, realize that nothing is moving or making a peep besides me and the insects. Absolutely nothing. All animal life has totally vanished, and realize there is a large hawk circling overhead. Over the summer, something killed a half-grown groundhog and left it. We think it was a red-tailed hawk who wasn't big enough to haul off 20 pounds of dead animal. |
RE: Red tails to the rescue
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We love our red-tails, too.
Wonderful birds. And we have a pair of Kestrels who come to us every year. For more aggressive pest-control, there are always the coyotes, but they are a profoundly-mixed blessing. Jeri |
RE: Red tails to the rescue
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| Shelby the wondercat is the only one of the indoor crowd who goes outside. One day this summer I heard the shreiking of a rabbit in trouble..there was Shel with a small rabbit hemmed in. A horrible crunching noise was next as he ate its head...why the head? I have a Rose friend whose varmit population is kept in check by the eagles who live on the river nearby-only problem is they also like chicken-course there are people who say that rabbit tastes just like....... patricia |
RE: Red tails to the rescue
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| Must be widdle cotton tails. There isn't a Red Tail made that can hoist a California Jack Rabbit. |
RE: Red tails to the rescue
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| Every year, the great southern migration of the house sparrow brings the sharp-shinned hawks back for the winter. The arrival of the hawks mark the soon-to-follow exit of most bird life for a good part of the winter. This year, we also are hosting a very young red-tailed hawk as well. I miss the bird song in the garden. The silence, other than the wind and an occasional cricket is very lonely. |
RE: Red tails to the rescue
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| There are holes around my brand new roses. I have mixed feeling about the hawks. My neighbor saw one pick up a bunny and carry it away. That means that when we got our new puppy, we stayed with it outside for 2-3 months. We never allowed it to go out alone. Here we have a nice fenced in yard just for the dogs, but the "sky" wasn't safe. I haven't seen them close enough to know what kind they are. There is a little Pollyanna inside of me that would like to pick and choose nature. Sammy |
RE: Red tails to the rescue
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I'd have said there wasn't a bunny within miles of here, but Clay says he and Becket run across a few, running very early in the morning.
Apparently, seeing a wabbit in the morning makes Becket's day. :-) Jeri |
RE: Red tails to the rescue
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| My Tabby has lost her zest for chasing rabbits also; I swear some of them were bigger this year than her petite 7.5 lb. frame. She would sit on the deck with me while we would have our coffee and watch them nibbling grass in the yard while I urged her to 'do something about them' and she would look at me like 'really, mom? They're pretty big and the grass is wet....' She's pretty good at sleeping, tho. I would rather have the hawks than the snakes any day of the week....truly. I'd live with rabbits before snakes..shudder. I can't get past that phobia.
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RE: Red tails to the rescue
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| I don't know what goes on in the garden, truly. Most of it's away from the house and usually I'm not down there early or late. I know we have hawks and foxes and weasel family members, and kestrels at certain times of the year, and I suppose they do their jobs. Rabbits don't appear to be common around here, but we have hares (=jack rabbits). Mice and suchlike too, no doubt. One of my cats is a redoubtable hunter, disappearing for weeks at a time in the summer. I don't mind small, non-poisonous snakes. The ones that are five feet long give me a start. |
RE: Red tails to the rescue
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| Ann, this might help: Years ago, I lived in a tiny cottage behind a big house, with fields behind. We had a terrible hot spell, and a black snake (though probably not the same as a Tennessee snake) got into the cottage and took up residence between the metal shower stall and the wall (I discovered this while taking a shower, but I'll say no more about that...). My mother took to calling me on the phone and saying, "And how is Mr. Snake today?" And, of course, after she did that there could be no killing - I would see his little head poking out from his nook behind the shower, and I would be hopelessly anthropomorphic... So just try to think of them as Mr. Snake (or, of course, Mrs. Snake), and maybe you will feel more kindly towards them. |
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