Tuesday November 22, 2022 Guerneville CA.
Rats
I set the cam on the new bait station last night with no bait, just oats to get them eating. These three rats spent a good deal of time last night feeding on oats.
Clucking Chickens
This morning around 11, I heard the chickens making a ruckus outside. After listening for a bit to make sure it was my chickens and not a neighbors, I went outside and saw the chickens were alarmed and making a lot of noise. There were white chicken feathers on the ground and leading away from the area. I also heard some crows squawking out by my gate so went out to see if I could find the culprit as I figured the crows were watching the critter and that’s why they were making all the noise, maybe anticipating some left over goodies.
Gate, dead chicken rolls down the hill
As I got to the gate where the crows were just above it, this dead white chicken rolled down the hill. I looked but didn’t see the culprit.
I decided to tie the dead chicken to a post so it couldn’t drag it off and put the game cam on it, which I did, and went back into the house for a cup of coffee. After less then ten minutes I decided to go back out and have a looksee.
Dead chickens gone already
The chicken was gone and the tie down string too.
It’d only been a few minutes since I was last here.
At least I had the game cam out and this is what it caught.
Bobcat
I’ll blow it up for your older eyes.
I didn’t tie the bird tight enough and the string just slipped off the top of the post as the cat took it up the hill.
The cat is going back up the hill with the bird in it’s mouth. A bit hard to see in the shadows.
The pictures show it was back to get the bird in about three minutes after I left to get the cup of coffee.
It’s rare for a bobcat to come down here in the daytime, or at least it used to be.
Giving blood at the VA lab
I have a yearly exam coming up in about a week so needed to go down to the VA place where the shopping centers are in Santa Rosa so took off to go get that done. I got right in and they got the blood they needed to do the tests. The person with the needle was good and I didn’t feel a thing.
Home again
It was late in the day by the time I got back home.
After sitting around the yard for a bit I decided to see if I could follow a trail of feathers up the hill where the bobcat took the chicken earlier.
I did find some about fifty feet from where it took the chicken through the fence but that was all.
I knew of this old redwood tree stump just up the hill from that spot and checked it out for chicken feathers, but there were none.
I walked down the old road on the way back to my house and ran into a neighbor lady leading three goats around so I thought I should warn her about the bobcat coming down in the daylight. I’d never met her. We had a nice chat and I went on home and took it easy for what was left of the day.
Nice day, except for that chicken.