Prey birds

[stimpylu32]

Driving back and forth to Portsmouth every week it shocked me to see the numbers of red tailed hawks and other big prey birds that have made their homes along the interstate hi ways , not sure why they have moved into these areas other than the fact that the open ground along the roads may make for better hunting of small rodents .

I like seeing them sitting up in the trees and on fence posts , they show what we as hunters have been able to do with the $$s that we spend , but on the other hand with so many around the rabbit numbers seem to be way down . Not sure if the birds are totally to blame or if it is more of a case of losing habitat .

With the yote's and prey bird numbers going up every year , and the ever shrinking cover , i wonder if the small game animals like rabbits , pheasents and quail will ever be able to rebound to were they were 20 years ago . So whats your take on this ?

stimpy

[BIG Dog454]

I would suspect house cats for the rabbits, and coons for the birds.  I would think that the great number of coons is having a great effect on the birds by eating the eggs.

[sk330lc]

   Red tailed Hawks are hard on all small Game and small farm animals Like chickens.. When dad was a kid back in the late 40's they had a bounty on them .. I remember him telling about how many Bani chickens they lost from the Hawks. A farmer down the road from me has lost a few chickens also in the past few months. This past fall while Bow hunting from tree stands i watch two diff. hawks work on the squirrel population.  It's all part of the wildlife loop or (food chain)  However you see it. There is good and bad in all.

[quickdtoo]

They're hard on decoys too!!!

Tim

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