FreeLists / bristol-birds / [Bristol-Birds] Feeder Visitors

[RonEHarrin@xxxxxxx]

Hi Bristol Birders:

Keep a close watch on your bird feeders these days. You never know what might 
show up. Over the years I have had the usual array of cats stalking the 
birds, dogs just doing their thing; rats, voles, moles, chipmunks, squirrels 
(sometimes a dozen or so)-- all taking black oil sunflower seeds; skunks, and 
birds of prey such as red-tailed hawk, sharp-shinned hawk, coopers hawk, and 
great-horned owl. During the last few weeks I have been trying to figure out 
what was digging big holes around my feeding station. Apparently the culprit 
was after the chipmunks, which had several burrows nearby. Well, this weekend 
I think the mystery was solved.

Some neighbor children came over to tell my wife, Joan, that they saw a dead 
animal on the "Nature Trail" (the back part of our lot which was left to 
Mother Nature back in 1971). One girl thought it was a "wolf." What I found 
the next morning was a dead coyote.  Coyotes love chipmunks! 

Fearing rabies as the cause of death, I contacted the Washington County 
Health Department, and a team of three came to "inspect" the coyote. They 
stood back and declared, after I rolled it over, that it appeared "too 
healthy" to have rabies, and besides, they don't send the carcass off for 
examination unless there has been "exposure." I was asked to bury OLE Wily 
but only after checking with the children to see if they had touched or 
handled the coyote. They had not, so early Sunday I buried him without 
fanfare. This was the first coyote I had ever seen in the wild. Even in 
death, he was a beautiful work of nature. I figure he was probably poisoned. 
There were no visible signs of injury. Too bad that the natural habits of 
this great "survivor" have run afoul of mankind. At least the chipmunks can 
rest easy for a while!



Keep on birding!

Ron Harrington
Evergreen Hills, Exit 10 I-81
Bristol, VA



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       BRISTOL BIRDS NET LIST

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between birders and bird clubs of Southwest Virginia
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Bird Club, Herndon Chapter TOS, Chapter, Blue Ridge 
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Bird Club, Bristol Bird Club, Clinch Valley Bird Club
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