2023
Most of their prey are rodents, a few snakes and frogs (86%). The green represents the birds (14%), but 4 of the 15 birds were released.
Sadly, we were met at the front door by a dead chipmunk. Well, half of one. The upper half. Nutmeg is awful. Way to gross out the grandies.
May 26 – Chipmunk tale
Apr. 24, Nutmeg caught a nuthatch, which she brought to the back door. I let her in, grabbed a towel, and followed her into the office. Nuthatch was released.
April 11th three voles
2019
Sept. 14 – Annabelle brought a chipmunk up to the back deck. I brought her in. It ran.
Sept. 7 – Hooper brought another chippie into the bathroom. I caught it and released it.
Sept. 1 – Hooper brought a chippie into the bathroom. JB managed to seperate them, and chippie ended up in his office. I tried, but couldn't catch it. Eventually, Hooper got it.
July 30 Hooper ate a rabbit head he brought home from across the highway.
May, 17th – Annie brought a mouse into the living room! I caught it and set it free.
Key: red are rodents; yellow = birds. We've had 31 critters captured during the year; 7 birds, three killed by Hooper and Annie.
July 30/31 – Annie found an unfledged sparrow.
June 17th: 6:15 a.m. Hooper caught and partially ate, a vole at the bottom of the upper deck stairs. 9:00 a.m. Hooper brought a chipmunk into the house and dropped it into his food dish. I took it outside in the butterfly net and released it.
June 17th: 6:15 a.m. Hooper caught and partially ate, a vole at the bottom of the upper deck stairs. 9:00 a.m. Hooper brought a chipmunk into the house and dropped it into his food dish. I took it outside in the butterfly net and released it.
June 10th, Hooper brought a baby rabbit into the kitchen, dropped it near his food dish and proceeded to eat it.
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| Total 37 |
I gather data, because I want to know. I watch them in the yard. When they grab anything they bring it home, since there are many critters for whom both the cats and their prey would be susceptible to, such as coyotes.
I have found that others have similar experiences with their cats, they bring their prey into their homes.
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| A Facebook conversation supports my cat experiences. |
Our outdoors cats don't tend to catch birds. The birds fly away. The cats are more concerned about barred owl, who keeps an eye on the cat. They are pretty smart. The barred owl has picked off two ducks, so far.
We've a number of bear sightings. We have to put our bird feeders away in May, as the bear came up on the porch. It's pretty simple.
I made Annie a cat collar, as she is a Norwegian Forest cat, and has camouflage!
April 1st, I could see Daisy had something in her mouth. I opened the door and she brought the junco into JB's office. I picked it up, took it outside, and it flew off.
Dec. 29th Daisy brought a chickadee in. She hasn't caught anything in months.
The feeder attracts everything!
Daisy brought in a chickadee. They all bring their birds indoors. Daize trotted in and dropped it on the new carpet for me to see. It was picked up, it rested for a moment, and I took it outside, flying up onto Fathead. Then, it was gone.
Both bird groups and Ontario Nature are trying to market themselves by angering people over cats as killers. It's just not so. The studies have too many variables, we don't know how many birds or cats there are. For us, the birds are pretty swift, and fly off. Mostly, it is rodents that they grab.
| Prey | #s | % |
| Birds | 9 | 12% |
| rodents | 48 | 65% |
| snakes | 13 | 18% |
| insects | 4 | 5% |
| 74 | 100% |
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| In 2015 we had 4 cats |
Bird count 2015
Final totals:Four cats caught 11 birds in 2015, out of a total of 73 critters found out and about. Mostly, they were in the spring. The hawk chased two, that I know of, which flew into the window.
We released 4 of the 10 that they caught.
It's about time this topic came up again. It always does, in January, when bird traffic at feeders increases. It truly depends upon where you live, and the individual cats.
Ou hawks get a lot of birds.
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| She waited for it, listening intently |
Daisy heard one under the snow last year. They have marvellous tunnels under the snow. We are plagued by mice in the house. They carry disease.
PART I: Cats as predators; we're meat eaters, too
PART II: Cats as killers: myth or true data
PART III: Cats as killers... debate continues!
PART V: Protecting bird feeders from cats
What do we need to know in order to come with data?
We don't know how many cats people own.We don't know if they are indoor or outdoor cats.
We don't know if cats are feral or domesticated.
We don't know how many birds there are in the wild.
We don't know the numbers of rural and urban cats.We don't know how many people feed birds in heavily populated cities and lure both birds and cats.
There are variables in terms of climate and weather. They aren't out getting birds in -20 C. temperatures, nor in pouring rain.
This is nonsense. It's just wrong to pit cat lovers against bird lovers! Too many, on either side of the fence, are happy to get upset with these ridiculous 'facts!'
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