The Resilience of Small Game
A typical spring morning as I watch a rabbit feeding on the clover in my backyard with little fear because rabbit season has been long over or is it?
Well at least for humans it has but like small game all over the list of predators is long and every day is a struggle to survive. Just the other day I caught a glimpse of the red shoulder hawk zipping across my backyard and hardly a day goes by that I don’t see someone’s house cat stalking in my yard. Most of them have learned that they are unwelcome intruders in my yard and at the first sound of the door opening they are gone. If you’re a cat owner you really need to keep your cat home because they are a predator and do prey on birds and other small game. Check out the Bird Advocate blog to see I’m not the only one concerned about the impact of free ranging cats.
I occasionally catch a quick glimpse of the grey fox that wanders through looking for a furry happy meal and either cat or rabbit will do. I’ve yet to see the coyote in my yard but I often hear them at night so I know they do pass through.
The odds seemed stack against the rabbit and yet they continue to survive. It’s not unusual that by fall I no longer see rabbits on the lawn. The question is did they get wiped out or did they find a place to feed with a little more protection?
I have a brush pile in the back corner of the property that I add brush to each year and I take no action to kill the clover in the lawn that the rabbits like to feed on small steps to keep the circle of life going. I guess if small game can survive in a hostile environment like my backyard imagine how good it could do on your hunting land if you take some small steps.
Provide Cover, food and predator control and you can have a great place to hunt small game. Quail Unlimited and National Wild Turkey Federation have some great resources and many of the steps you take to help those species will also be a boost to other small game.
Thank you, my Friend, for your blog in support of our small game. Of course, you recognized all our predators depend on them. In this day and age of new construction and destruction of habitat a number of species will become extinct, if we are not vigilant. Thanks again for your calling attention to the threat the feral cat poses to our ecology.
Comment by Bird Advocate — June 15, 2007 @ 6:03 pm