Wisconsin "Cheeseheads"

[GranolaGirl72]

Thanks for all the mower advice, Jim. Steve is home so I imagine that kill switch would be where he should start looking first. I know there is one under the seat and it won't start if the PTO is engaged but the reminder his helpful.

Sorry to hear about Twitch... maybe a fox or a fisher?
Or a bobcat...

 

[kristip]

ChickenDreams...not sure where in SCWI you are...but we have even had cougar sightings down south of Madison lately... DNR has been out to record them. Keeping my girls a little closer to home!

BBP...do you get chicks in later in summer too? I would love to get a few standard Cochins but we going on a vacation and with crazy sports would prefer to wait until July1.

Mom came over to visit for the weekend which was nice but did not get to dig in my garden as much as I would have liked. Hoping to get some work in today before the rain comes!

 

[chickendreams24]

Sorry to hear this.  Twitch was a big boy.  Badger is a possibility.  The burrow under your steps sounds like a groundhog to me.  They aren't afraid to dig anywhere and are stubborn about staying put. 

Thats what we thought about the hole at first, too, but it was very very large and never went anywhere. One time it was dug three feet deep in one night. Also the rocks and cement chunks we put in were about the size of large grapefruit maybe even larger. Could a groundhog get them out of the hole? The dirt would be thrown a ways and a couple times we thought we saw claw marks but could have been wrong.

ChickenDreams...not sure where in SCWI you are...but we have even had cougar sightings down south of Madison lately... DNR has been out to record them. Keeping my girls a little closer to home! 

We're about an hour south of Madison maybe an hour and a half. Just about as far down as you can get. I know there have been cougars spotted along the rock river down here in the last couple of years but we are a few miles from the rock river. I also believe there are bobcats in this general area too although I think they favor more wooded areas. I hadn't even thought about a cougar because we heard no noises from the predator, not when it took him or when we were chasing it. No growls, no snarls, no hisses. Plus I think it was too short.
It's eyes from any sort of distance were so close that it's eye shine looked like just one eye. And I would guess it was maybe a good tall in that.

Tonight was a bad night. We lost our flock master and only large fowl rooster, Twitch, to a predator tonight around 10 pm. We live in South central WI and if anyone has any suggestions as to what it sounds like I would greatly appreciate it.

What I know. Our flock was out late tonight BC DH2B was in the fields and didn't get home until 9:30 we were out for about a half hour but didn't bring them in BC DH2B was starving, so we were going to eat and then bring them in. Our flock is fooled by our yard light and frequently have to be brought in when the weather is nice BC they think it's still day time. We have never lost an animal to a predator although we've had a couple close calls with hawks. Our roosters do a great job protecting the ladies.

So firstly, we were outside and came inside just long enough for me to pee so less than 5 minutes, when we heard a huge ruckous. I flushed and ran outside thinking DH2B would also run and investigate, he didn't, but he's been in the fields all day so I kind of understand. Okay so I get outside and I see one of the broody's chicks a 4-5 week SLW standing in the middle of the yard cheeping, said broody is laying on her side under a tree. I thought she'd been attacked. She got up when I approached and seemed fine. I looked around and realized I only saw hens and our two bantam roosters. I walked towards the slw chick and found some feathers. Flight feathers, hackle and saddle feathers. Not a lot but enough that I was worried because I didn't see Twitch.

I ran in and grabbed DH2B and flashlights. And we searched and searched and searched. At first we assumed it must have been an owl. But then found a trail of sparse feathers(several of our flock are molting so feathers are in abundance around here but we were sure these were his) leading across the yard to our barn yard where the trail dead ended. We then started to wonder what could have done this and continued our search on foot. Before driving up and down the road to see if we could see anything. (I believe this is when the predator left the barn hard and headed into the field.) We ended up driving the truck out into the field behind out house on a whim. We saw eye shine and followed it. But the field was too rough and we were worried the old truck would get stuck(they redid the irrigator this year so there's some two foot deep ruts from trucks)

We got out and followed the eye shin on foot. Twitch was nearly 12-15 lbs and towards the bigger end of the scale. He was a massive bird and strong as an ox. Great with his ladies but aggressive to my mother and I. He was also quite good at fighting and dodging attacks. I know this from seeing him with our other roosters and from having to kick him when he came at me. His aggression had earned him a spot on a list of birds to cull. That being said I respected him he was a great flock master never started a fight with another roo and even though he would assert dominance and put them in their places he was kind and gentle to the other birds especially the hens.

Okay the point is although we never got a good look at the animal BC it kept it's distance it's eyes were very very close together and it was small very close to the ground. I know some animals can help be distinguished by the color their eyes shine, this animal's were green in the light. The ground is too dry for tracks but it left no blood and no drag marks. It was carrying the huge bird in its mouth. I believe it too small to have been a coyote. It didn't seem to act like a coon.

We followed it into the field and found a place where it was plucking Twitch still no blood or any tracks. It eyes never seemed to change height. It was fast and it went over a half mile carrying the carcass. We followed it to some train tracks near our house before we lost it following it down the tracks.
I'm not 100% sure what all we have around here but I know I have seen skunks, heard coyotes, DH2B saw a fox but it was about a mile in the other direction, racoons, and some people say badgers are around here too. I've no clue what could have taken such a massive bird without leaving more then a couple handfuls of feathers and no blood. We have been seeing a pair of osprey or eagles around but it was clearly on the ground and never took flight. I may have missed some possibilities.
What are the most likely options that it could have been? Should we assume it will try to come back? Hell this is all new and I'm very frustrated and upset. I so wanted answers but the animal was always just out of our lights so all we could see was eye shine and the approximate height.

Over the last month or two there have been several nights where our great dane was frightened to go outside we assumed she was smelling something but had no idea what. Now I wonder if the two things are connected. I have seen her chase racoons and she's been outside when we could hear coyotes without acting scared.

We have also had something trying to dig under our stairs. A pretty sizeable hole too. We have had to fill it in several times but not for about a week, maybe two. We would fill it in and the next morning it would be larger and deeper even after we started putting large rocks and a couple pieces of concrete in it.

I'm leaning towards badger BC they are so low to the ground but are still very large and strong but I've really no clue.

Hope you can help.

 

[fancyfields]

Im from Viroqua

 

[CherMoz]

Welcome Fancyfields! Love that area of the state.

 

[jvls1942]

.welcome fancyfields
tell us a little about yourself and what birds and pets you have
I think there is somebody else here from around your area.

I got Ollie out of the trees. I think the alternator is bad.
I put the spring tooth back on and
as long as he was running so good, I dragged the garden again.
I think I have it loosened up enough so that from now on I can just run the rototiiller through it , over it, around it.

.I have to put a larger capacity feeder in with the pullet chicks. they clean out the tiny chick feeder pretty quickly already.

I think the hole near your house is a woodchuck. maybe more than one. I had some pretty large deep holes alongside my garage like that. it was woodchucks
are you sure the animal you trailed actually had your rooster ? his actions didn't sound like anything that had prey in it's mouth. IMHO

resisting the urge to plant corn. I just know it will freeze once more before June.. especially if I have corn peeking up..

.........jiminwisc........



.

 

[Daethen]

I agree with Jim. Woodchucks can really dig a huge burrow. I used to mow grass for a guy in the country. Used a large zero turn mower and there was one burrow that the woodchucks dug that could have gotten me really stuck if I wasn't careful. I asked my husband and he thought bobcat. Think about a cat's behavior, if they have something and think it may be taken away they usually crouch over it head low. Big cats can travel long distances in a night so a few miles from one is really in their back yard.

 

[chickendreams24]

Yes but over night or even in a matter of say 4-6 hours could a woodchuck dig a 2-3 foot deep hole that's a foot and a half across?

We have had woodchucks before on previous properties and never had anything like that from them.

Again we didn't get a clear shot of the animals but we found it very shortly after he always grabbed and as we were walking towards it and it was moving away we came upon a pretty sizeable area covered in feathers. So the evidence is circumstantial but I'm pretty certain it did.

If it we a large cat I feel like it would have growled or hissed or something during the fight or when we came upon and started chasing it. We never heard a peep from the animal.

Here's Twitch back in March

 

[CherMoz]

Here is a picture of a big hole on our property:


and here is what comes out of it:

 

[chickendreams24]

Here is a picture of a big hole on our property: and here is what comes out of it:

Is that a grey fox? Well whatever was digging here never tried to make a nest or anything just went down at about a 60% angle