awfully quiet in the neighborhood lately..

[only1harry]

I guess it's because it's Spring time and most animals are giving birth and caring for their young.  

I haven't seen a squirrel in my property for at least a week.  Normally there are 3-4 of them running around or chasing each other.  No Starlings either except I saw one a few days ago attacking the robin's nest in my spruce 25ft away from my bdrm window but moma robin that was in the nest came right out and confronted the Starling that landed in the branch above.  My guess is she was incubating eggs or has newborn chicks.  The male Robin flew into the tree out of nowhere a second later, and gave chase to the Starling all the way up the block.  Not the norm 1/2 dozen Starlings hanging out together..    
I haven't even seen any groundhogs but maybe I shot the last one about a week ago(?).  I doubt it since I found 5-6 new holes on my property in the back, all at the base of different trees approximately 20-25ft from each other.  None of these existed 2 weeks ago when I last checked the area.  It's unlikely one g-hog made them all but I could be wrong.  These holes don't really bother me since they 're about 15ft out from where the lawn ends, but those are the trees that squirrels fall from after I shoot them so I can see losing a few down those holes when hunting season starts.  I wouldn't want to post pics of a g-hog hole and say down there lies my squirrel :-)  Perhaps I can close them up temporarily for the winter with rocks since the g-hogs don't come out after October/November.

Anyway was wondering if anyone else had noticed fewer critters around or is it just my imagination.

[30-06]

Harry, maybe you killed all the critters in the neighberhood already!! LOL!!! Maybe they are just shy to come near your property, because they know the "neighberhood sniper" lives there. LOL!!

[only1harry]

Nah, I only shot 1 squirrel last month since Feb. because it's the off-season now.  Besides there were 6 of them running around so I figured what 's 1 less?  :-)  

It could be people have sprayed chemicals on their lawn (a couple of neighbors use GreenThumb and TrueGreen vendors) which drove the birds away.  Not sure about the squirrels.  I think this is the time the females give birth because I saw a couple of unusually "fat" squirrels that must have been pregnant a couple of weeks ago.  I did see 1 song sparrow early this morning under the spruce.  He was chirping away happily.  2-3 weeks ago there were cardinals, mocking birds, chickadees and some yellow birds all in my back yard hanging around for at least a week.  Now it's eerie silent.  Oh well, patience I guess.  They 'll be back.

[longislandhunter]

Hey Harry,,,

I have more critters roaming around my property than I can shake a stick at. Squirrels seemed to have increased in numbers within the last few weeks and I now have starlings in the yard and trees every day. All this activity is even without me putting out any bird feed for the past week and 1/2.

Something must be going on near you to be causing this is my guess....

Jeff

[shadow]

Yup sound's like there's something in the air Harry, they should be out and about. I awoke to a skunk in my garbage, grabbed the 1250 but thought stinky dead varment hmmm. Grabbed a couple lava rock's from the flowerbed and wacked him with the second shot lol. He vanished into the night with his stink. Ed

[Jaymo]

Maybe you have a hawk or a stray/feral cat that's got them scared. Whenever the hawk is around, the birds and squirrels are nowhere to be found. My backyard was empty yesterday, and I found out why. There was a Huge feral tomcat lounging in my backyard. It's been a big pest, killing my critters, attacking my wife's cat, etc. I was feeling nice so I didn't use the B30 to finish him off. I used the .177 pumper pumped up on 4 to smack his a$$ and run him off. He turned and looked at me for a good 2 seconds before I pulled the trigger. That sum*_*_*_*_*_* knew it was me who lit his buns up. He ran off like raped ape. Let's hope it stays away. If not, then I'll try to get a trap from animal control. Then I can trap him and let the dog catcher deal with it. I don't want to kill it, as I'm not crazy about killing something that I'm not going to eat. Though I could make some nice fur lined underwear out of his pelt. Then I could cradle my nertz in sort, furry warmth.(That's what I always tell our cat when she irritates me)   ;-) If I lived out in the country, I'd introduce it to Mr. .223 and not worry about it. But such is not the case.

[Jaymo]

BTW, one of my squirrels was chasing one of my anoles yesterday. No way I'm going to have the tree rats eating my lizards. Lizards are useful. They eat bugs. So, I opened the wndow, yelled at the squirrel, and the squirrel ran off, and barked a bunch of squirrel obscenities at me, from a distance.

[only1harry]

I think you guys got it.  There 's been a white cat hanging around my house the last few days and I 've been thinking if she 's the cause the wildlife on my propery is not existent.  
I tried to scare her and chased her away a couple of times but she 's not afraid of people.  She has a red collar on so she 's from a home and used to people.  She 'll just walk around me or slowly run 15-20ft away, look at me and then proceed to my back yard or front..  She sometimes walks by me only 10ft away without even being concerned or anything, and with a slow pace and then go lie down near my porch or in the middle of my lawn like she owns the place.  She 's a young cat and in good shape/fit.  She looks like a hunter for sure.  I have no clue where she came from but I can't shoot her even to scare her with a couple of pumps.  I actually like cats and would be afraid she might get sick or lead poisoning of it broke the skin..  Besides, that's all I need is my neighbor to see me shoot a cat, he 'll have the entire police dept. here, the state police and the National Guard, that is only 2mi. away at Stewart Airforce base (Air National Guard) :-)