Hi, I have been feeding the song birds and I have about 50 California quail coming 3 times a day that I give chicken scratch. I notice now that I have a wild rabbit around the out buildings. I give it chicken scratch and leafy veg scraps. I put a cookie of alfalfa in the tool shed and I see he's been roughing that up too. Do you have rabbits or something? Ed Will Oliver BC
- Thread starter ed will
- Start date
You are so lucky to have wild game birds. In Pa. quail are a thing of the past along with pheasants. We do have woodcock migrating through in the spring and fall and some grouse in the mountains. I use quail for my dog training but they stay in a pen and after working the dogs the birds left in the pen call the ones back I had released.
Tom in TN
Well-known Member
- Location
- Southern Middle Tennessee
Did someone say. "wild turkeys"? We have tons of wild turkeys around here. One day last winter I counted almost 100 of them in one of my pastures. It would be criminal to shoot one of them. You could just walk out and grab one of them by the neck anytime you wanted one.
I, too, have bird feeders in the back yard for the song birds. There are about a dozen wild finches on the finch feeders right now and a whole bunch of juncos, cardinals, blue jays, and other varieties on the bigger bird feeders. They are just a delight to watch.
Tom in TN
I, too, have bird feeders in the back yard for the song birds. There are about a dozen wild finches on the finch feeders right now and a whole bunch of juncos, cardinals, blue jays, and other varieties on the bigger bird feeders. They are just a delight to watch.
Tom in TN
Andy Wickiser
Member
If you really want to make the rabbit happy put out your apple cores. Years ago I noticed that apple cores would always disappear from my compost area - rabbits would pick them out.
I have a feeder outside my oldest girls bedroom window for her to watch them. Sometimes we have to go shot a few starlings that seem to try to take over. Another good way to attract birds is to grind feed when the snow is on the ground. I shot a bucket full of turtle doves one year after they came in to eat all the cracked corn that was on ground from grinding feed.
I remember my uncle tried to raise white angora rabbits during WWII in hutches that he made, but the rabbits kept dying. He gave up and just turned the rabbits loose in the yard. The rabbits thrived and reproduced like crazy! I could drive in the yard any hour of day or night and see white rabbits hopping around. I think they ran free around the farm for almost 40 years before an increase in the fox population wiped them out.
Dave H (MI)
Well-known Member
A couple here at the house that I don't use anymore. I don't have a bird feeder at the farm. Out in the fields I have seen upwards of 10,000 blackbirds on the cornfield. A couple years back I drove down the lane behind the woods and there were 50-100 turkeys on the lane. They flew up in the air when the truck got close and landed behind it...corn again. But you are talking about on purpose feeding. So when I empty the rock trap I pull into a corner and dump the contents on the lane. I pick up any good ears and throw them to the (domestic) geese. They clean them off. The residue is quickly attacked by the local deer, coons, squirrels, and many wild birds. Every once in a while I have an "oops" loading a truck. Even woodpeckers eat corn, much to my surprise. I often wonder how any is left for me to pick.
I feed the birds at a large feeder in back yard. Had to raise it 10 ft. to keep it out of reach of bears. I have some really good photos of bear swatting at hummingbird feeder this summer. Since I added 10 ft. to living room 6 years ago, with 6 window-walls, I have counted 95 different species of birds, Also rabbits, white-tailed deer, coons, numerous gray squirrels. We have no TV in LR, don't need any entertainment besides what nature provides for free!!
rossow (mn)
Member
South-central Minnesota: I have multiple bird feeders about 10 feet outside my back door. I get lots of birds, including cardinals, juncos, chickadees, nuthatches, sparrows, starlings, grackles, mourning doves, downy woodpeckers, hairy woodpeckers, red-bellied woodpeckers, rarely a pileated woodpecker. On the ground under the feeders I get cottontails and even occasional hen and rooster pheasants. Under or on the feeders I get gray squirrels, a couple of which are pure black. I also often get whitetail deer cleaning up under the feeders and trying to reach up high enough to lick feed out of them. Raccoons try to get suet out of the feeders, and possums routinely clean out my outdoors cats' food pans on my deck. I have no shortage of wildlife, not surprising since my property is entirely in an official state game refuge.
We get a variety of birds at our feeders but the rabbits are a pain in my rear. They eat my roses and red raspberry bushes, stem and everything, to the ground in the winter. I have set live traps for them and have caught a raccoon, opossum, groundhog, yes a groundhog, squirrel, chipmunk, and a skunk. No rabbit. After I trapped the skunk, I quit setting the trap. The local animal control guy told me I will never catch a rabbit in a live trap. If I feed them to protect my roses and raspberries, I will just get more rabbits so I've given up and they win.
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