Bushhogs and Wildlife

[hunterridgefarm]

Its seems I always have some kind of wildlife encounter when brushhogging. I have brought countless baby rabbits and slow moving turtles back to the house to doctor up and set free.

Almost always I have the Red Tail Hawk watching me waiting for the field mouse or rabbit to be flushed out for an easy meal. The Hawks are not shy anymore they will let me get close enough on the tractor to almost see my reflection in their eyes. Beautiful birds.

There have been times I would have to stop the tractor to let the slow moving groundhog waddle by. ( I konw I should just run over the varmits but I can't do that, guess I'll have to start carrying my pistol.)

The red fox I usually see once or twice a year. this past year I had two deer, obviously spooked, come running out of the woods, jump my fence and almost land on my tractor.

I have ran up on a wild cat that went absolutely berserk and scared me more than I did him. I mean this thing went crazy .

I do love to watch nature while enjoying a relaxing ride on the tractor .

BUT...to have a SNAKE jump straight up out of the tall grass and run across the platform and my feet while I am seatbelted in with no escape thats just about more than I can take. It is time to think CAB.

Unfortunately the CEO, CFO, CBM ( Chief Biscut Maker) said NO

Guess I'll just have to bushhog that field in the dead of winter .

 

[RedRocker]

I just hit rocks and brush, your mowing is a lot more exciting.

 

[BamaRob]

I used to flush a hen turkey and her poults out of a food plot in the spring when I mowed it. After a couple times, I started mowing it in late Feb. or early March (before turkey nesting season) and then again in May (after the poults are big enough to run fast enough to get out of the way, though they're usually gone from the nest site by this time). Which reminds me, it's time to mow the clover down again...

Had a rat terrier feist + blue heeler mix that used to follow me around waiting for the kutter to flush field mice, voles, rabbits, etc.

Snakes don't bother me much (though I do have a healthy respect for the poisonous ones; mostly copperheads encountered around home). My son brought a corn snake to the house the other day. He'd caught it while mowing my late great uncle's place. I told him it was probably near the house looking for water (since it's been SO dry around here). I put it in a terrarium and put a jar lid filled with water in there. The snake went straight to the water and sucked it dry! I released it the next morning before leaving for work, but caught the same snake again crossing the paved road in front of the house that evening (just moved it out of the road so it wouldn't get ran over).

I once watched a red tailed hawk catch a chipmunk. I had a good vantage point up in a deer stand. A very neat thing to witness.

Later,

BR

 

[Jaybr]

I once had a black snake come flying up out of the mowed grass right behind the bushhog, and just layed there on the cut grass. I thought I had killed it with the bushhog, but on the next pass I saw it had a mouse in it's mouth. I guess when the mower flushed the mouse the snake grabbed it.

 

[hunterridgefarm]

Rob,

Snakes don't bother me much either...until you can't get away from them and I certainly did not expect it to jump on my tractor .


BTW I like that grapple!

 

[Birdhunter1]

Because of the wildlife is one reason I won't hardly mow till about the last week of May or early June, that way most of the baby rabbits can run a bit faster and farther.. but I have chased a few across a field so a hawk wouldn't have a chance to get them.

snakes don't bother me too much while mowing either.. but it does get kinda hairy when you sit down and start up a tractor in the morning and a rattlesnake crawls out of the engine cowling across the platform between you feet.

 

[jbrumberg]

I tend to cut my lower field later in the season so I do not make wildlife tartare . I have a lot of wildlife nesting in my "grass". I will cut the field perimeter, but a scared toad could probably get out of the way. I also stir up the grass and brush before I stringtrim to get the snakes moving. I used to have a couple of mixed breed dogs that would parallel the RC at a safe distance (by their estimation , but they seemed to know how close they could get to the RC, and they really liked vole buffet. They all died of old age.). Hawks are awesome on patrol . Jay

 

[YanmarFever]

You guys need to invite old Ernie over with his shotgun

he can take care of all your critter problems !

 

[Soundguy]

At my place... mostly mice / rabbits and snakes get flushed out while brush cutting. We have a few birds of prey that wait for the tractor... even landing as close as 20' away to pick up 'escapee's ' Generally i don't 'break' for wildlife except for a few circumstances. I usually try to avoid tortises and cowbirds... and yes.. I have accidentally hit a tortise 1 time that I know of... saw the poor sucker just too late to do anything but apploogize. Strangely enough i managed to hit a cowbird too... Id have figured a bird should be able to get away.. but the 'poof' of white fluff that exited the mower said otherwise..

Soundguy

Its seems I always have some kind of wildlife encounter when brushhogging. I have brought countless baby rabbits and slow moving turtles back to the house to doctor up and set free.

Almost always I have the Red Tail Hawk watching me waiting for the field mouse or rabbit to be flushed out for an easy meal. The Hawks are not shy anymore they will let me get close enough on the tractor to almost see my reflection in their eyes. Beautiful birds.

There have been times I would have to stop the tractor to let the slow moving groundhog waddle by. ( I konw I should just run over the varmits but I can't do that, guess I'll have to start carrying my pistol.)

The red fox I usually see once or twice a year. this past year I had two deer, obviously spooked, come running out of the woods, jump my fence and almost land on my tractor.

I have ran up on a wild cat that went absolutely berserk and scared me more than I did him. I mean this thing went crazy .

I do love to watch nature while enjoying a relaxing ride on the tractor .

BUT...to have a SNAKE jump straight up out of the tall grass and run across the platform and my feet while I am seatbelted in with no escape thats just about more than I can take. It is time to think CAB.

Unfortunately the CEO, CFO, CBM ( Chief Biscut Maker) said NO

Guess I'll just have to bushhog that field in the dead of winter .

 

[czechsonofagun]

I had a snake once get out of hishole right under the deck and the blade got him in an instant. Turtles I watched to lay eggs on our land - not disturbed at all by to mower near by; not sure if any of the eggs hatched, but she was dropping quite few of them.