Whipporwills

[beenthere]

I imagine a healthy raccoon population has something to do with the decline of the whipporwill, if it nests like that on the ground.

 

[Bird]

GlueGuy, we have very very few quail anymore when there used to be lots of them. I've heard a theory that it's because they nest on the ground and the fire ants get any babies that hatch. Maybe the same is true of the whip-poor-will.

Bird

 

[Devildog]

I agree with beenthere on the racoon population, We have a bunch coming up on our back deck,eating the cats food, Since the pelts dont bring any money they really dont have any preditors. We use to hunt them back in the 70's. Just wondering if there is a book out there that can help me in what foods or anything to put out back of the house to try and get them back? Thanks all.
____________________________________________________
Take care, Jim


1951 John Deere B (poppin johnny)
Semper Fidelis

 

[scruffy]

Bird, thats a very good observation ! Never thought of that, but knowing what the fire ants are capable of, I would go along with that assessment! They sure can stop a good sized tortoise!

 

[GlueGuy]

Well, the over-population of racoons is largely due to the racoon being pretty "opportunistic", and getting into pet food like that. That does a couple of things; 1-The racoon population gets larger than the land would normally support, 2-The racoons predate on other critters more because there are more of them.

Of course it's all a lot more complicated than I can articulate in a couple of sentences, but the whip-poor-wills did pretty well until we drained the swamp (so to speak), but it's happening all over the country. There are several other ground nesting birds that are endangered in other places.

We have tons of California Quail here, they usually run around in groups of a dozen or so. Every now and then you'll see a smaller group; I guess it's because a Bobcat or Coyote had a mini-feast.

The GlueGuy

 

[TWINKLE_TOES]

GlueGuy,
<font color=blue>racoon being pretty "opportunistic" </font color=blue>

Smart to. I was fixin a hog wire fence yesterday and right next to me the dogs tree'd a Coon. I think he was comming back to go thru the fence where it was down. That rascal very carefully climbed from tree to tree until he was on one across the fence. He came down and strolled slowly away laughing his butt off at those barking dogs. He knew darned well those dogs could'nt get thru that fence.

Al

 

[Anonymous Poster]

We have whipporwills here in southern Indiana, lots of them. We hear them in the early summer and they can get really loud. My wife hates them because they keep her awake at night, but I don't have very good hearing so they don't bother me. We've heard them every year for the 4 years we've lived here.