what kind of predator is this?

[rsphillips]

Hello I'm Sharon and we have a duck farm in northwest Tn. Yesterday in the middle of the day we checked on our Call ducks. In one area we have a black and white call drake, his mate and their one week old duckling. What we found was a pile of feathers and the female's head and spine bones were all that was left of her. The duckling was nowhere to be found and the drake was in hiding unharmed. We are wondering if anyone has had the same experience and know what the predator was. Thank you for any help.

 

[drumstick diva]

Oh Sharon how horrible!. I can't even imagine what would have caused this kind of carnage. It would be best if you posted on the predators thread in full detail so they can possibly ID the culprit and suggest how to prevent it from happening again. Do you know where it entered your run or yard?

 

[nj2wv]

welcome to BYC !!

 

[BantamFan4Life]

Welcome to BYC! I'm glad you joined us!

 

[rsphillips]

Oh Sharon how horrible!.  I can't even imagine what would have caused this kind of carnage.  It would be best if you posted on the predators thread in full detail so they can possibly ID the culprit and suggest  how to prevent it from happening again.  Do you know where it entered your run or yard?

 

[mymilliefleur]

So sorry for your loss! It could been a number of things. My guess is that it was a hawk or raccoon, since both of those like to eat on sight. It also could have been a fox. I hope this doesn't happen again!

 

[NickyKnack]

Oh Sharon, how terrible! the type of predators depends on your location. I could be fox or bobcat. They tend to eat their prey where they catch it.

Welcome to BYC and the coop! There's a lot of great peeps here! Feel free to ask lots of questions. But most of all, make yourself at home. I'm so glad you decided to join the BYC family. I look forward to seeing you around BYC.

 

[rsphillips]

Thank you for your condolences. It was quite devastating to see our poor Becky killed so barbariclly. She was such a good mom. Very sweet to watch the new parents with their young one. We think it could have been a hawk since we have been hearing a lot of screeching around the woods edge. We do have foxes but it doesn't appear that there has been any chance around our fenced area. As a precaution we have put strands of orange ballers twine crisscrossed above the remaining ducks. I was wondering if the hawks were more attracted to the ducks because they had a very young duckling. We've had ducks in that area a long time without any problems. We have also been walking our dog around the duck fences in hopes that the scent would deter predators. Has anyone tried hanging cds? We read the movement scares hawks away.

 

[Outdoorkls]

I've never tried hanging CD's but In think it might work! Hawks might be hesitant and a bit fearful to go near something that reflects light like CD's do. I am so sorry to hear about what happened!

 

[rsphillips]

Thanks Outdoorkls. We have also decided to put orange netting over top. Heard they don't like orange. We have multiple hawks this year. Probably newly hatched this year. Kinda worried since we have 5 new ducklings in different pen same area.