- Jul 26, 2009
- 1,866
- 44
- 171
Uh-Oh, I've got missing quail!
When I've gone out to tend them, it seemed like fewer were coming to see me, but I didn't really think too much of it, since they like to go in their two little houses inside the pen, and I often see multiple little heads poking out the little doors. And, they're hard to count anyway, since they are always moving. I thought perhaps they were gathering inside the houses and beginning to lay eggs for the season or something.
Anyway, yesterday I said "hold on here, something's not right" -- so I actually did a count where I caught everyone one by one, put them in a small cage, and made sure that everyone was out of the two little houses.
Well, I now have only 23. I had 37 originally. When I first moved them to the outside pen, I lost 3 that got out, apparently. I found a fourth that was sitting there, and put him back in. I then modified the design of the door so that can't happen again. So, I had 34 last fall and at Christmas, in the last 2 months I've lost 11 birds.
Now, the mystery is this -- NO dead ones in the pen. NO bodies buried in the litter (I raked it yesterday to be sure).
So, IF they died in the pen one by one, the rest ate them COMPLETELY, bones and all, and did it totally between the time I take them water in the morning and then again after work just before sunset. Unlikely, IMO -- I'm sure I'd have seen traces of corpses.
Which means either they are getting out, or something is getting in and taking them. And, I'm pretty sure there is no way they are getting out. I am sure I took care of that issue last fall.
Well, lo and behold, I went around every inch of this pen this morning, and found a hole about two inches across chewed through the hardware cloth right at the ground level on one side, under the sheet of plastic I put on for the winter as a wind/water barrier.
Now, to futher the mystery, we've had a LOT of snow ever since Christmas, and frequent fresh snowfalls, and there have never been ANY tracks of any kind around the area where I keep the birds, EXCEPT for some squirrel tracks.
I have a MAJOR infestations of red squirrels. I have been fighting them for years. There are some living right now in my greenhouse and my tool shed. I keep putting out poison bait and traps and getting rid of them, but they keep coming back.
Anyway, I think that it must be the red squirrel doing this. Nothing has bothered the other birds -- ducks, chickens, turkeys, and all of the pens are side by side about 8 feet apart.
We don't have rats here. And, I think if it was a mink or weasel, which is also really unlikely, since this is pretty heavily developed suburbs, wouldn't those animals kill multiple birds and leave corpses?
Whatever is doing this is taking one bird at a time, apparently, and carrying it off. And doing it gradually over time -- I know I had all of them at Christmas time, and now down to 23.
I went out this morning early, reinforced everything, put boards and cinder blocks up against the base of the pen all the way around as a temporary measure until I can do something else, put out a whole bunch of rodent bait blocks around the outside of the bird pens, put some traps in the greenhouse and shed.
I know squirrels will take bird eggs, baby birds, etc. I'm sure they would take a Coturnix if they could catch one.
Darned squirrels anyway -- over the years, they've chewed wires under the hood of my truck, stuffed the ventilation system of my Chevy Tracker full of walnuts (the dealership wanted $1100 bucks to tear the dash apart and clean it out!), chewed holes through my vinyl siding and the sheathing on my garage, and are constantly getting in to my shed and my greenhouse.
When I've gone out to tend them, it seemed like fewer were coming to see me, but I didn't really think too much of it, since they like to go in their two little houses inside the pen, and I often see multiple little heads poking out the little doors. And, they're hard to count anyway, since they are always moving. I thought perhaps they were gathering inside the houses and beginning to lay eggs for the season or something.
Anyway, yesterday I said "hold on here, something's not right" -- so I actually did a count where I caught everyone one by one, put them in a small cage, and made sure that everyone was out of the two little houses.
Well, I now have only 23. I had 37 originally. When I first moved them to the outside pen, I lost 3 that got out, apparently. I found a fourth that was sitting there, and put him back in. I then modified the design of the door so that can't happen again. So, I had 34 last fall and at Christmas, in the last 2 months I've lost 11 birds.
Now, the mystery is this -- NO dead ones in the pen. NO bodies buried in the litter (I raked it yesterday to be sure).
So, IF they died in the pen one by one, the rest ate them COMPLETELY, bones and all, and did it totally between the time I take them water in the morning and then again after work just before sunset. Unlikely, IMO -- I'm sure I'd have seen traces of corpses.
Which means either they are getting out, or something is getting in and taking them. And, I'm pretty sure there is no way they are getting out. I am sure I took care of that issue last fall.
Well, lo and behold, I went around every inch of this pen this morning, and found a hole about two inches across chewed through the hardware cloth right at the ground level on one side, under the sheet of plastic I put on for the winter as a wind/water barrier.
Now, to futher the mystery, we've had a LOT of snow ever since Christmas, and frequent fresh snowfalls, and there have never been ANY tracks of any kind around the area where I keep the birds, EXCEPT for some squirrel tracks.
I have a MAJOR infestations of red squirrels. I have been fighting them for years. There are some living right now in my greenhouse and my tool shed. I keep putting out poison bait and traps and getting rid of them, but they keep coming back.
Anyway, I think that it must be the red squirrel doing this. Nothing has bothered the other birds -- ducks, chickens, turkeys, and all of the pens are side by side about 8 feet apart.
We don't have rats here. And, I think if it was a mink or weasel, which is also really unlikely, since this is pretty heavily developed suburbs, wouldn't those animals kill multiple birds and leave corpses?
Whatever is doing this is taking one bird at a time, apparently, and carrying it off. And doing it gradually over time -- I know I had all of them at Christmas time, and now down to 23.
I went out this morning early, reinforced everything, put boards and cinder blocks up against the base of the pen all the way around as a temporary measure until I can do something else, put out a whole bunch of rodent bait blocks around the outside of the bird pens, put some traps in the greenhouse and shed.
I know squirrels will take bird eggs, baby birds, etc. I'm sure they would take a Coturnix if they could catch one.
Darned squirrels anyway -- over the years, they've chewed wires under the hood of my truck, stuffed the ventilation system of my Chevy Tracker full of walnuts (the dealership wanted $1100 bucks to tear the dash apart and clean it out!), chewed holes through my vinyl siding and the sheathing on my garage, and are constantly getting in to my shed and my greenhouse.
