Very near miss

[nybirdman]

I normally don't brush-hog this time of the year(June-July) because of all the young wildlife.I decided to do some of the atv/utv trails and around my growing food plots.Almost made a big mistake.....had a deer fawn jump from just under my left front tire,one more revolution and I would have run right over him.He/she jumped up and ran twenty yards and lay down again and momma also jumped out of a brush row.This fawn couldn't have been more than a day or two old.

 

[brin]

I normally don't brush-hog this time of the year(June-July) because of all the young wildlife.I decided to do some of the atv/utv trails and around my growing food plots.Almost made a big mistake.....had a deer fawn jump from just under my left front tire,one more revolution and I would have run right over him.He/she jumped up and ran twenty yards and lay down again and momma also jumped out of a brush row.This fawn couldn't have been more than a day or two old.

I wasn't so lucky....2 years ago I was bush hogging and felt a thump...I thought I had run over a big ant hill or dirt clod ...I was in 3 to 4 ft. tall grass and brush...as I made my next round I saw pieces of the fawn I had run over with the bush hog and 20 yds. away I saw the Doe....I am still not over it...I am glad it did not happen to you...

 

[rd_macgregor]

I hate it when that sort of thing happens. We don't have any wild deer here, so I'm at least free of that concern, but I ran smack over duck's nest while hogging a week ago. I felt really sorry for the momma duck, but she flushed literally inches in front of the tire.
BOB

 

[BX25HD]

I had a turkey fly up right in front of me last year. Scared the wee out of me! Then I saw her little ones. I left that field alone for about a month.

 

[DH44]

I normally don't brush-hog this time of the year(June-July) because of all the young wildlife.I decided to do some of the atv/utv trails and around my growing food plots.Almost made a big mistake.....had a deer fawn jump from just under my left front tire,one more revolution and I would have run right over him.He/she jumped up and ran twenty yards and lay down again and momma also jumped out of a brush row.This fawn couldn't have been more than a day or two old.

I hear you. I don't brush hog now unless I have to- and when I do I'll take a 4-wheeler and run a grid through the field first....

 

[chad22]

I've once ran over and cut up a Frog. Didn't see it in the tall grass until I saw it flying in pieces out the deflector of the lawn tractor.

Chad

 

[joshuabardwell]

I ran over a bed of baby rabbits with my mower once. They were hunkered down so low it didn't hurt 'em a bit, thank goodness. The next day, mama had moved 'em.

 

[ericher69]

I ran over a bed of baby rabbits with my mower once. They were hunkered down so low it didn't hurt 'em a bit, thank goodness. The next day, mama had moved 'em.

Same scenario different outcome...

1 mulched
1 crying fatally wounded
4 unhurt

Oh and this spring a robin chick that fell from the nest

 

[joshuabardwell]

Oh and this spring a robin chick that fell from the nest

Little known fact (at least to me). According to The Internet, birds falling from the nest and being on the ground for a while is an inherent part of them learning to fly. If you find an adolescent bird on the ground, The Internet says the best thing to do is leave it alone, as its parents are probably nearby, and it is probably just going through that stage.

 

[horse7]

I bush hog before the grass is too deep, so that the deer drop the fawns somewhere else.

Also bush hog in a pattern starting near the house and going further away, so that the voles, mice, and other rodent vermin are driven further away not into a heap with the house at the center. The neighbor when he bush hogged the front field (my driveway is just a pipestem), drove all the rodents to the verges... the mice infested my mailbox for months despite moth balls, sprays, and even blasting them out with a B&D battery blower (always exciting the first time, cloud of mouse nest with several furry lumps literally flying across the road from the air blast. After the first time, they hear a diesel engine and vacate the nest... only to rebuild it again later. Yes, they really do hear the engine, I snuck up on them once and they were were still in there... filthy mail eating vermin... post office person stopped delivering for weeks.).

 

[boggen]

rotatory cutting. not much can be done. tend to use the FEL with bucket a couple inches off ground. to hopefully nudge something out of the way.

there was a couple threads a while back. of folks killing some folks that were laying down in brush drunk/drugged/ or what not. we all talk about regular animals. but rotatory cutting in areas were there are folks, it is still possible to take many things out

 

[BX25HD]

rotatory cutting. not much can be done. tend to use the FEL with bucket a couple inches off ground. to hopefully nudge something out of the way.

That's funny. I keep my FEL low to look for stumps that I forgot about.

 

[indianaEPH]

unfortunatly I had the experience of hitting a fawn while bush hogging. I never saw it. It was a week later that my dog found it. I feel really bad about it. the grass was very tall and I never had this happen before. im not sure how to avoid this other than a detailed search before bush hogging. Even then there is no certainty of not hitting one of these poor critters

 

[JamesHW]

Back when we were newlyweds we rented a cottage in Northern Va from an old lady and I had some caretaking duties (the rent was $300 a month) which included mowing. This was with a push mower and I repeatedly would mow over an big old box turtle back around the garden, vineyard area. Always felt bad about it and the top of his shell was pretty scarred up from years of this. After awhile I figured out where he liked to hang out and would walk that area first, find him and locate him off to the side and he would watch me mow from there.

 

[coveredbridge]

I've once ran over and cut up a Frog. Didn't see it in the tall grass until I saw it flying in pieces out the deflector of the lawn tractor.

Chad

I hit a big snapping turtle last year, and nearly got into some poults.

 

[woodlandfarms]

My wife hit baby rabbits late last week with the brush hog which is attached to the front of the tractor. Only 2 survivors and one is immediately grabbed up by the dog. If course I am in la and it is so hard to console her from a distance.

She says she will resume mowing today. I think she gets it's part of the process, and after loosing a bit of her garden to rabbits she is less upset.

 

[TripleR]

We mow very little and very carefully this time of year. I only mow grass short enough it won't hide anything. We will be going hard at it later in the summer.

 

[grnspot110]

I ran over a bed of baby rabbits with my mower once. They were hunkered down so low it didn't hurt 'em a bit, thank goodness. The next day, mama had moved 'em.

I too, ran over a rabbit nest in the middle of my front yard this Spring, not hurting them. Few weeks later, anther one about 20' from the first. Now we seem to be over-run with "garden eaters! Kicked up a fawn once while pushing an old hog fence out in the timber, left the rest of the fence until later in the season. ~~ grnspot

 

[The Haymaker]

While I have yet to run over a deer, moose, or lactating cow, am I wrong and heartless in shrugging my shoulders while saying "unfortunate losses"? I hate to kill anything, but I'm not gonna quit mowing because of it.

 

[ericher69]

While I have yet to run over a deer, moose, or lactating cow, am I wrong and heartless in shrugging my shoulders while saying "unfortunate losses"? I hate to kill anything, but I'm not gonna quit mowing because of it.

No you are not!

Law of the jungle; the strong survive.

I've seen people swerve off a road into a ditch; cause injuries and expensive vehicle damage because they did not want to hit a tree rat crossing the road