Today I checked the clover trail plots behind the house. It's coming along good though I noticed some bare spots,then a dusting bowl. Later while taking a break I hear a hen out here calling. So I called her from the pc room window. She came in fast and angry. She had another quiet hen with her and they stopped at the lawns edge. They were down there plucking out those seedlings. This brought to mind the fact that deer are blamed for stripping understory and food plots , gardens and orchards. I don't see that being the case. I have watched rabbits ,ground hogs, turkeys, squirrels, racoon and even robins devastating plots, areas of crops, garden and fruit trees. With a lack of small game hunting and fur trapping there is no shortage of herbivore in our woods and fields. I have watched everything hitting the mulberries. Robins, turkey and squirrel strip a 1/2 acre corn plot and garden planting. Wood chucks mowing plots and girding large areas of trees. Turkey, squirrel, raccoon and bear stripping peach, plum, kiwi, cherry, and apples. I had a turkey stand under one peach tree hopping up and down snatching one peach after another off my best trees. Counted 6 raccoon in one mulberry with 2 squirrel. Lets not leave out the increase of rabbits. During turkey season I watched rabbits merrily hopping from one maple seedling to the next chewing off the top of each. I wonder why when conservationist are looking at the lack of regeneration in forests they aren't talking about the lack of small game hunting. Ah the browse line argument..hhmm.. Take an area in maple regeneration ,which by nature is thick, there will be a natural dying and dropping of lower branches. Thick over story equals less light, which equals less lower growth. Any ways next time you worry about seeing no ground growth in your woods, look past the deer and maybe pick up your 22 or a chain saw.
I have a brand new batch of kittens, they were born up in the loft lived up there for 8 weeks. No cat food, there are now contained inside the house they are psycho cats, they would keep the yard clear of any for of wildlife.
Ok..that went over my head until Sorta spoke up..lol We have more feral cats around here than I care to mention. Twits feed them( no offense Sorta), this is probably the reason the predators aren't keeping up. They have enough cats to feed off. I watched a feral cat hunting a corn plot one afternoon. When I left for the night it stepped out onto the road in front of me and headed up the hill where I was walking. Next thing I know an owl barely misses my head and slams that cat on the road. All I heard was a screeching meow and si!ence. The owl folded its wings around it and hopped it off the road as I walked by. No fight from that meal. Bet easier than trying to catch a rabbit or squirrel.
"Give the gift that keeps on giving; a pregnant cat." Saw a sign in a pet store where "excess" barn cats were up for adoption. Had three or four on the dairy farm.
I brought this up due to being in a management area that a few years ago our DEC thought keeping us bow hunters from being able to shoot a buck the first two weeks of bow season. All to lower those bad green eating doe #'s. Under the guise of habitat and crop damage. Not shoot a doe or 2 to earn a buck, Not giving us more doe permits. We had only 1 perhaps 2 permits and that was it. Shoot a doe opening day and you were done for 2 weeks. Many of us went to other management units to hunt. Their harvest numbers dropped instead of increased and they canned the brilliant plan the following year. If a conservation plan is made then ALL aspects impacting an issue need to be addressed. I do not see that happening on several things.
