We started seeing a squirrel around here and knowing our current bird feeder set-up was easily accessible to them, until we can figure all that out, we put up on of those corn cob twirly things on the other side of the house.
To make things a little more fun, we noticed a rat on the ground near the feeders earlier this week. Ugh. My husband put a rat trap baited with peanut butter in a 5-gallon bucket which has a rodent sized hole cut in the lid. No takers yet on that. This morning about 7:45 my 9 year old happened to see a rat on the squirrel corn. While watching this, a "really big bird" swooped toward it and the rat was gone. He is as familiar with the birds as the rest of us, so after some questioning, we believe it was a Cooper's hawk, but prior to this have only seen them going after small birds. He was certain the hawk was too small to be a Red-tailed and the tail was that of a Cooper's. There are Red-tailed Hawks and Kestrels nearby, but we've not yet seen them on our place, only Cooper's and (heard) Great Horned Owls. So? Would a Cooper's eat rats? I tell you if Cooper's will feast on those, I will possibly not mind if they take a small bird or two now and again. Thanks for any responses. Kim Gerety Rural Dallas County, Iowa --- Please contribute your sightings to our list; it is only as good as members make it! --- Birding channel recommendation for FRS/GMRS radio use: Primary selection; channel 5/0 , alternate selection; channel 6/0 --- This mailing list is sponsored by the Iowa Ornithologists' Union. Membership available on-line at http://www.iowabirds.org/iou/membership.asp. ----- You are currently subscribed to ia-bird as: [email protected]
