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Birds of prey...........
Seeing how these birds are hunters I thought I would post this up here.
While in the forest a few weeks back Bloodhound and I ran across some recent roadkill so we decided to set up the game camera's. After peggeing the rabbit down so that it would stay in shot I set the Reconyx to take 10 rapid fire pics and to reset immediately. I ended up with over 2000pics of these..........( I worked on the basis that the more pics, the more chance of getting some good shots.
Shortly after setting everything up we had the first arrival......................A Harrier Hawk.
He settled down to a feed...............
And over the next hour or 2 I got some great shots...............
Word must have got around and another one turned up......and chased the first one away......
There then followed an aerial battle and the newcomer chased the first bird away.......
Before the first bird turned the tables and settled on the carcase to feed...........
But wait, theres more........................
While in the forest a few weeks back Bloodhound and I ran across some recent roadkill so we decided to set up the game camera's. After peggeing the rabbit down so that it would stay in shot I set the Reconyx to take 10 rapid fire pics and to reset immediately. I ended up with over 2000pics of these..........( I worked on the basis that the more pics, the more chance of getting some good shots.
Shortly after setting everything up we had the first arrival......................A Harrier Hawk.
He settled down to a feed...............
And over the next hour or 2 I got some great shots...............
Word must have got around and another one turned up......and chased the first one away......
There then followed an aerial battle and the newcomer chased the first bird away.......
Before the first bird turned the tables and settled on the carcase to feed...........
But wait, theres more........................
Still enjoying the trip of a lifetime and making the best of what I have.....
Replies
He then 'Mantled' over the carcase to claim it as his and commenced to feed.....
By this time the carcase had been pretty much picked over and while I got about 200pics of him he didnt hang around long............cos the next customer arrived.......
Yep, a wild cat. The nearest house is about 8-10 kilometres away andthis is one of many wild cats that I have seen in the forest over the past few months.
It didnt get a chance to eat much cos the next thing on the scene was my jeep and it vacated the premises real quick.
Next week I am going to set up the camera on the footpath and padlock a diamond ring near it to see what kinds of other birds I can photograph................
Is that a feral housecat or a species of wildcat in NZ? The black striped coloraziation isn't familiar to me, so I'm wonderin'? Feral housecats are becoming a major problem here in the Deep South, primarily on nesting songbirds I think (ground nesting Bobwhites seem to be exempt for some reason, thank God!) I remember back in the early 60's when I was in forestry/wildlife school our old wildlife prof told us that feral housecats, while not a problem at present, would definately be by the time we reached retirement age. He was right! As he was on about anything else he said relative to wildlife.
Feral house cats are a growing problem most everywhere. They can do some serious damage to fur and feather wildlife. Especially rabbits; the rabbit population where I live was pretty much nil until I started taking care of the feral cat population. Thinned out the feral cats and started seeing rabbits again.
― Douglas Adams
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmXxrMC5Pv4&feature=related
Jerry
As to cats, turns out they make pretty good bait for cougars. The mess hit the fan when the animal rights people found out the county hunter was trapping feral cats to use as bait to trap the cougars that came too close to town. He almost lost his job over that. We have a lot of stray/feral cats in town but they don't last very long in the hills.
Hawk
Thanks Rich.
That is a feral housecat. They are a major problem over here. They start out as nice fluffy kittens which make great christmas presents for kids, but when they lose their good looks and become a pita to feed, they end up being dumped out of the car on a country drive. When I was working the charter boat and had access to free fish I used to take whole fish to our 40 acres and nail them to the trees about 6' off the ground and wrap them in chicken wire. After 'baiting' the area for a few days, I would go back at night with the spotlight and suppressed .22 and clean them out. Best score was 9 in 45 mins. Before I started doing this the property had very few native birds and the quail/pheasant population was almost nonexistant.
Two years later the birds were back and you could shoot your limit of pheasants/quail most days without any problem and still leave enough birds for a healthy population. Due to not fishing I havent been able to keep up the programme so the population of cats has started to grow with a consequent lessening in the bird life.
Thats why I hate cats............and the owners that are too lazy to look after them.
I assume the Pheasants are Ringnecks, correct?