Bird Kill

[planomustang]

So, the Friday before the storm hit, I put out a lots of hay, at our farm in northern Wise County. I was pretty sure it was enough to hold the cows, until the storm broke.

Today, I went back up there, to put out more hay. My estimate for needed hay was spot on. Just a few scrap hay piles, that the cows were still working.

All the cows were okay, and one calf was born in the middle of this storm.

What surprised me was the number of dead, frozen birds that I saw. There were at least three in the corral, where I park the tractor. Don't know what kind, as they had been eaten.

On the way to the pasture, I see three more dead birds. Looked like some kind of field larks. Pretty good sized, with some yellow feathers.

I found two dead dove, in the stack of hay bales, on my trailer. They had borrowed down between the bales, together, and they still froze.

I wonder how much carnage I would have found, if I had given the place a thorough inspection.

[Pistol]

They froze to death because they couldn't find enough food. That and hawks had a field day with them. The songbirds fly slower when it's this cold and they couldn't find any shelter in the trees.
My songbirds tripled their consumption of food this week.

[ThisLadyHunts]

I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself.

D. H. Lawrence

[tazhunter0]

Been feeding the birds around the house all week. Dogs found several frozen in the backyard and made short work of them. The few I found in the trees/bushes next to the house, once warmed up they took off. My brush burning pile out front, I dumped birdseed and some rabbit feed on top to fall thru to the bottom. So far no more dead birds or rabbits.

[Pistol]

I saw 12 smashed on the road all clustered together. This crazy cold is hard on little birds. I haven't seen any mockingbirds.

[ultrastealth]

I saw several robins in the back yard during the freeze that could hardly move.

[Rick]

i put out almost 40 lbs of sunflower seeds this past week they were eating them as fast as i put them out

[BTLowry]

I found a couple of dead ones around the house

I put some hen scratch out for the birds and there were flocks of birds coming to it

[Box-R]

I found several dead, yellow-feathered 'Larks' and a couple of doves.
Quite a few little birds were smart enough to shelter with my chickens and share their food/water.

[AtTheWall]

I stuck about 10 bowls of dry multi-flavor cat food, which fed the birds that need protein as well as the cats and stray dogs who managed to find it. Neighbors kept bird feed and warm water out around the clock, and the swarms of birds there was unreal. Each day, a few would pile up dead from the shock.

I had several finches seeking refuge under my patios - so I fed them water and food under every protected zone of my outside home.

Had a couple of heated blankets out in an outdoor closet with several feral cats piled up in there. The birds were just outside - not one of the two species cared about the other during the worst of this storm

Made covered shelters, tossed a bunch of thick blankets in layers over the top, electric blankets inside using multi-blanket layered, snap together cat/dog shelters on front and back porches as well with electric heating pads inside. Each had animals in them - hidden and protected. I left them alone so they wouldn't run out into the mess and die in a panic

[Johnny Dangerr]

I am not seeing many birds..............

[okrattler]

I saw some Canadian geese standing out in a field the day after it got -30 at night. I bet they were thinking they were back home. They're probably thinking about flying to Florida for the Winter next year.

[jason86]

If you were looking for the dove they are all at my deer feeder.


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[Landrover]

Found one chi-chi bird dead under a tarp I had covering one of my wifes plants. Guess he was the weak link hanging around the yard.

[TxAg]

The weak ones die but the vast majority do fine.

[SNKETR]

I found 3 dead ones around the house from the cold. The hawks on the other hand have been slaughtering them the last week. I’ve never seen so many hawk kills. Got a couple trail camera photos of hawks going after doves at the feeders.

[Quackerbox]

Originally Posted by jason86

If you were looking for the dove they are all at my deer feeder.


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Charlie got more than that!!!


Yall got some doves!

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[Big pig]

My wife and I have been feeding a bunch of species behind the house in some thicker brush
Strangest sight was a single big blackbird among the locals.

[Smokeater]

Fed em daily and had a bunch show up! Saw one that I don't think I've even seen one like it before!lol Didn't loose any around here but found 3 dead on my in-laws back porch. Sad for sure.

[jason86]

Originally Posted by Quackerbox

Charlie got more than that!!!


Yall got some doves!

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He’s stacked too!

[js4242]

I have never seen more robins in my life as I did in the storm. Big flocks of them all over the neighborhood. They all seemed to be doing fine eating the red berries out of the trees.

[Bdub25]

Originally Posted by jason86

If you were looking for the dove they are all at my deer feeder.


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Looks like our place, a little to the south of you!

[175gr7.62]

My son wore them out with his pellet gun this week.


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[SC-001]

Found a bunch of them dead on the south side of our house, even in 1989 we didn't find dead birds frozen solid, that windchill sunday night into monday morning was unlike anything this area has seen in a couple hundred years I think, no doubt a bunch of critters perished not just birds.

[DRT]

Originally Posted by 175gr7.62

My son wore them out with his pellet gun this week.


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That's how it should be!

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[Marsh Bandit]

How do y’all think the turkeys did? We are just starting to grow a nice herd in Anderson county. Hope they made it

[stevieray54]

They just brought that up tonight on the Houston news about all the birds that died. Some place downtown Houston where the bats hang out were laying all over, looked like leaves on the side walk.

[Duzy]

This dove was dead, next to my horse tank.


I get to...

[Bayouboy]

Purple Martins got hit hard.

[7sdad]

I found 2 dead babies at our new house the other day.

[RifleBowPistol]

We found some dead birds, after the snow melted. I think most were mocking birds.

[riverbowman]

We had 7 or 8 slam into our windows over a two day period. It was weird. They never do that. 4 of them died.

[RifleBowPistol]

Originally Posted by SNKETR

I found 3 dead ones around the house from the cold. The hawks on the other hand have been slaughtering them the last week. I’ve never seen so many hawk kills. Got a couple trail camera photos of hawks going after doves at the feeders.

We are not seeing hardly any hawks this winter, around where we are. I don't remember seeing any hawks around here, in the last month or longer. I took a trip up 130, to Austin a couple months ago, I saw a lot of hawks on the trip up there and back. 130 is not far from us. I guess where we are, there is not enough open ground for the hawks to do their dive attacks easily.

We got the vultures though, we have multiple dead deer on the sides of the roads, in the area. They are not eating them when they are fresh kills, they are letting them lay for a couple weeks before eating them. I saw two large groups of vultures that found deer that had been dead for weeks, then got buried under the snow, then the snow melted and the deer carcasses, were laying in melted snow and mud. I guess that made for a nice soft, soupy meal for the vultures. They swarmed to those deer and cleaned those deer up. There were nice clean bones left, when they were done. I wonder if the deer did not stink enough for their tastes, so they left them, hoping they would get to smelling more to their liking later on. I have been noticing this for the last two years.

[MUZZYSLINGR]

We had quite a few bird die during the storm also. Saw the hawks around the property get quite a few also.

I found a block of meal worms in the garage & put those out for the birds & it seemed to help them greatly.

They wiped that block out in just a couple of days.


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[ShockValue]

Originally Posted by riverbowman

We had 7 or 8 slam into our windows over a two day period. It was weird. They never do that. 4 of them died.

I think I read that the Robin's were getting drunk on the Yaupon berries. FWI...Flying While Intoxicated!

[Duckologist]

Originally Posted by okrattler

I saw some Canadian geese standing out in a field the day after it got -30 at night. I bet they were thinking they were back home. They're probably thinking about flying to Florida for the Winter next year.

How do you know they were from Canada?

[riverbowman]

Originally Posted by Duckologist

How do you know they were from Canada?

That's crazy. The ones that croaked after hitting my windows were waxwings and mocking birds.

[Jet Black]

We had quite a few hitting the windows at our house too. All seemed to survive those encounters. Spent Monday night at MILs house due to us having no power, and Tuesday morning out her kitchen window you could see a small bird froze to death sitting on the neighbors roof under and eave trying to get out of the elements. That was a brutally cold night.

[Etxbuckman]

I hope the blackbird/grackle and European Starlings got hit hard too. Hate those things...

[Boss Buck]

We had several blood spots in the snow with dead eaten bird remains. It upset the wife as she had put seed out. She thought a predator had got them. While working and looking out her window she saw it all. Bird quit moving and the others ate it!!! Mother Nature is no Joke!

[DBLHKUP]

I put extra feed out each morning. They were all over it, quick! Hopefully helped them get by.