Neighbours

crowski

Member
Dec 14, 2020
4,972
10,331
On, Canada
I usually snipe a couple starlings, and maybe a tree rat daily. This is my oak tree — starling—-squirrel trap. This my view if watching T.V. Very handy.
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Anyways I drop this big starling he drops to the ground. Put my K98 away. I went back out on the deck and a barn owl fly in and scooped him and took off. More efficient than a Hoover. How cool is that? Wildlife is at a premium right now. Crow 
 
Last year I shot some squirrels and started placing them on a large lime stone bolder in my yard. The next morning they were aways gone. After about the 6th time I set up a game camera to catch what was retrieving the squirrels at night. I captured very blurry images but couldn’t make out what it was. I guess the shutter speed of the camera wasn’t fast enough. So it became a challenge . No matter what I shot and placed on the rock it was gone the next morning and all the images were blurry or of just a bare rock. Finally I got lucky and could make out the large wing feathers of a great horned owl in a blurry picture. I would think it would have pounced and made sure it killed the prey but it obviously swooped and grabbed and carried the meal off before the camera shutter could catch it. Mystery solved.
 
Last year I shot some squirrels and started placing them on a large lime stone bolder in my yard. The next morning they were aways gone. After about the 6th time I set up a game camera to catch what was retrieving the squirrels at night. I captured very blurry images but couldn’t make out what it was. I guess the shutter speed of the camera wasn’t fast enough. So it became a challenge . No matter what I shot and placed on the rock it was gone the next morning and all the images were blurry or of just a bare rock. Finally I got lucky and could make out the large wing feathers of a great horned owl in a blurry picture. I would think it would have pounced and made sure it killed the prey but it obviously swooped and grabbed and carried the meal off before the camera shutter could catch it. Mystery solved.


Yep, I place my dispatches on a large flat rock out back and they are gone every morning. Sometimes the squirrels end up on the deck; head fur and tail.
 
Have to admit Blackpaw, I just started shooting Starling this past week. I was already looking out for tree rats ,what’s the difference? Soon the leaves will grow back and then it’ll become more of a challenge. If I see movement in the corner my eye I’m on them. Didn’t realize the damage and destruction they made, until I saw some of the videos and posts on this form. Crow 
 
I mentioned this before but last summer. I was on my driveway and I shot an apple in half that had gone soft. When I was caulking my gun a fox ran up and grabbed half the apple and took off. I watched in disbelief.

At the bottom of that old oak tree it’s splits and there’s an opening I can’t see the end of. I’ve had two squirrels run in that damn hole so far this year and their dead. Well I get these big turkey vultures in the tree sniffing around and I know they’re looking for those two tree rats. I bet one had a 4 1/2 foot wing span, Jurassic Park. These creatures mean business. Good luck getting them.

I only shoot tree rats and (Devil’s Spawn). Crow 

 
We had a robin build a nest on our front porch and it was low enough I could film it each day to see the progress of the babies. 

The babies flew the nest before they could really fly but I read the mother would keep feeding them even after they leave the nest. 

My wife was in the yard filming one of the babies on the ground when a crow swooped down and snatched the baby. 

Almost like losing one of our pets. 
 
I mentioned this before but last summer. I was on my driveway and I shot an apple in half that had gone soft. When I was caulking my gun a fox ran up and grabbed half the apple and took off. I watched in disbelief.

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Ha! Once upon a time back in the late 90's, during August I was camping out at the lake. Woke up at dawn to find a fox about 3 feet away looking at me. No telling how long it had been there. I had the door of my tent unzipped. I had a dog in those days, a female Gordon Setter. At the time she was splashing happily in the lake. Keeping that dog out of the water was next to impossible. 

I used to be a smoker and while watching the fox watch me, I had the usual morning nicotine fit. I rolled my own smokes back then. V-E-R-Y- slowly and carefully I got out my Bugler and rolled a cigarette. When I lit it and exhaled the smoke, the fox lost its tolerance for humans. It ran off. Now that I am no longer a smoker, I can understand why. Tobacco smoke really does stink.

When my dog got back a few minutes later having heard me up and about (or, she too smelled the tobacco smoke, ... who knows?) ... I'm like "Guess what you missed"?


 
I have a similar big oak tree I can watch from my recliner while watching TV. My dog watches it and the backyard. When I squirrel shows up, she wants badly to go chase it. I didn't let her out at first but the squirrels were getting smart and I had to change tactics. So I let her out and she chased the squirrels up the oaks. They paid her more attention than me. I then shot them out of the tree and she retrieved them. No chance of them running once they hit the ground but they were typically dead anyway. Now squirrel season has closed until October. She still chases them and looks at me as if to ask "why aren't you knocking it out of the tree?".

I threw the first 7 away but ate the last 5 You have to cook them a long time, like half an hour or more for them to get tender. But if you take the time they are actually pretty tasty.