Backyard Wildlife Wars
My wife has been feeding backyard wildlife for years. We have six bird feeders, two squirrel platforms, a suet feeder, a hummingbird feeder, and a birdbath. Our birdseed and suet bill is a budget item. Our porch is situated like the stage in an outdoor amphitheater. The planning beds are arranged like stadium seating, with our covered porch being like a stage. We have a 270-degree view of every part of our planting beds. Arranged along the top rear of the stadium are evergreen trees, each around 15 feet tall. They act like the left-field wall in Fenway Park. Scattered throughout this hillside amphitheater are evergreen bushes, field grasses, flowering trees, and other seasonal flowering plants.
During a typical day, we see many bird species. Bluebirds and Robins enjoy the bird bath but not the seeds. Cardinals, Nuthatches, Titmice, Towhees, Thrashers, Red-winged Blackbirds, Blackbirds, Finches, Mourning Doves, Southern Tanagers, Hummingbirds, and three kinds of woodpeckers. Several migratory species come during the shoulder seasons. Squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, and deer are also daily visitors.
Our house is surrounded by 40 acres of woods and wetlands. I hike back there occasionally during the coldest months. It is a snake-infested swamp nine months of the year. Impenetrable.
The predators include several species of hawks, foxes, coyotes, and cats. We hear Owls hooting, but rarely see them. The most prolific killer is a neighbor’s pet. A mischievous and friendly (to humans) black cat named Nino.
Every few weeks I’ll find a pile of Mourning Dove feathers in our yard. These are the telltale signs that a Hawk has killed and eaten a Mourning Dove. The Mourning Dove will be head-cocking its way across the lawn when a missile appears out of nowhere. A Hawk issuing a devastating strike. It’s over in seconds.
Once, we returned from the grocery to find a Hawk tearing a Mourning Dove to shreds. I stepped out on our porch to get a closer look. The Hawk looked at me for a couple of seconds, undisturbed. He continued eating every part of the dove except its feathers while I watched from our back porch, twenty feet away.
The most devastating killer is Nino, a neighbor’s pet cat. He killed Squirrels, Chipmunks, and several varieties of birds. Interestingly, Nino kills don’t include ground-feeding birds like the Thrashers and Towhees because they are aggressive when threatened.
My countermeasure is a squirt gun. A semi-automatic water rifle that can fire up to thirty feet. The water magazine requires twenty seconds to load. It makes a distinctive noise. The cats scatter when they hear the water blaster loading.
Writing on our back porch is my daily habit. Firing water bursts into the bushes is how I start my sessions. I want to flush out the cats hiding in the bushes to reduce the carnage. Yesterday I watched one of the squirrels scaling one of the steel hangers holding the feeders. The Squirrel wasn’t acting normal. He balanced on top of the pole, tail-wagging and emitting scolding sounds. Suddenly, Nino jumped toward the squirrel to nab him. Leaping from the top of the feeder pole, the squirrel averted Nino’s initial attack. He darted for a pine tree that borders the top of our sloped beds, Nino in close pursuit. The tree’s branches shook for a moment, then stopped. I thought Nino had made another kill. To my surprise, the squirrel emerged near the tree top, 15 feet off the ground. Nino’s weight trapped him on a branch five feet below the squirrel.
This stand-off lasted ten seconds. A few moments later, the squirrel jumped off the tree to the ground with a thump, then ran to his home tree, a big Sweetgum tree around 40 feet away. Nino watched the escape helplessly from his perch on the branch.
I started filling my anti-cat semi-automatic squirt gun, resulting in a descending Nino, branches shaking. I leveled the squirt gun at the tree in full-auto mode and fired until empty. By the time I got to the top of our bed on the hill, Nino was gone. The briar thicket that borders our planting beds is impenetrable to humans.
Nino is one of three cats that frequent our yard. He is by far the most prolific killer. I deal with the remains of his kills. He’s learned my moves. Nino knows if I don’t get the squirt gun, he’s welcome on our porch. When my daughters are home, Nino gets a lot of attention. He also enjoys propositioning our indoor cat, Prim, through a screen window. This elicits hissing from Prim but doesn’t deter Nino. Prime sometimes escapes and chases him out of our yard.
My wife loves feeding the animals but loathes the killings. I’m not happy about it, but what can I do? We created the ecosystem. It attracts predators. The water blaster is a reasonable partial solution, and fun.
Have any suggestions?