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Our deer population has been declining slightly mainly due to the fact that a lot of restrictions have been lifted such as point count on bucks mainly due to an outbreak of chronic wasting disease in the area a couple/three years ago. We haven't seen a deer in our timber since hunting season. Rabbits galore but no deer. DH and I just walked back to put up our game camera and found little tufts of bunny hair on our main trail and scattered over in the neighbor's pasture. No predator prints around it so it was probably a hawk or owl kill. I've heard that when the rabbit population is up, the coyote population will be up also. Oh joy.


Yep on the population cycles.

What I hate though..... is when the bunnies have their crash!! :rant then the bumper crop of predators suddenly can find no more bunnies...so...... yeppers, look for CHICKEN!!
 
Yep on the population cycles.

What I hate though..... is when the bunnies have their crash!!
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then the bumper crop of predators suddenly can find no more bunnies...so...... yeppers, look for CHICKEN!!
Plus, to add insult to injury, I just finished reading that there are 6-8 active eagle nests in our county. Just what we need to add some color to the large population of Red Tailed Hawks that we have around our property along with the owls. The Red Tails are already starting their territory disputes and spend the day screaming at one another. I chased one from a tree near our house just a few days ago and it's nothing to go out in the morning to find one sitting in a tree near the coop just eyeing the buffet table. I bought new nets and got one of them up last week. This one is clear so I'm just waiting for one of these feathered darlings to get itself tangled up so I can call MODOC and tell them to come get their bird and replace my net.

Next month the 'yotes will be in heat and howling their heads off for weeks on end. Oh well, when all is said and done it still beats the doody out of living in the city.
 
When we moved in over 47 years ago, rabbits were everywhere and nests full of babies. Also had Bobwhites, pheasants in the yard, and deer visits (
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) to trim our trees and shrubs and hosta blossoms.

We had swarms of starlings that would blacken the sky when they took off. Other wild things too, that I will not mention because the mere thought of them makes me faint. Cars took a lot of raccoons out.

Now we barely see a rabbit, even the squirrels have been thinned back - the deer don't feast in every yard - our area is surrounded by forest preserves. The woodchucks are gone, the opossums and skunks are a rarity - the fox are dwindling after the coyotes came . But now hardly see coyotes, that used to prowl our block often. I'm wondering what took them out.

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