Here Kitty, Kitty, Kitty

[Wayne SW/MO]

If you want to know where the quail went ask someone my age who spent a lot of time outdoors. I can assure you that there is no way near the number of brushy fence rows, abandoned weedy pastures, and there are more pigs and a lot more coyotes.

Rabbits are in much the same shape for the same reasons, or at least were 20 years ago when I gave up hunting them for lack of game.

[vonreed]

Nice picture. It's funny how people like to express their beliefs on stuff. The population decline in rabbits and quail is spot on with the crash of the fur market in the late 80's. With less predators killing = more prey populations. It's pretty easy to comprehend, but some people can't imagine killing something so beautiful, which I understand. But what puts a bobcat above a field rat? All animals have their place in the circle of life, and unfortunetly now humans are the main factor in that circle. Before and even now it is disease and stavation that controlled populations. Thanks for sharing the pic. It's not everyday you see a pic of a bobcat in an ice covered tree.

[Ham]

But what puts a bobcat above a field rat? .

Well, There are a thousand fold more field rats than Bobcats and if you put some effort into it you could see field rats almost any day of the week. Bobcat populations are probably stable, but due to their position relatively near the top of the food chain, there are inherently a lot less of them and therefore much less common to see. I've seen one in the wild, ever. That makes more special than a rat to me.

If anyone posts a picture with a pickup truck bed full of dead coyotes or feral pigs, I'll be proud of them and more than a little jealous.

It's a fishing forum, people are going to post opinions. It's what we do.

[Quillback]

If they eat squirrels I would be happy to have a few around my house. There's probably some out there, I just haven't seen them. I'm not a quail biologist, but the ones I have talked to all agree it's a habitat issue, not predation.

[vonreed]

There are probably 10,000 fold more perch than walleye, but which one will people throw in their cooler first? It's all a matter of perception. There should always be more prey available than predators otherwise the predators starve. Being less noticable doesn't makes ones life more important than the others, unless they are endangered.

[E Green]

again...just an awesome photo...probably my favorite pic I have seen on this site so far.

hope you keep posting wildlife shots because I love seeing them

[Al Agnew]

Hey, if you want to kill them in season, have at it. But it still seems silly to hope that by killing them you'll have more quail. If the quail have good cover, they can survive just fine with all kinds of predators. If they don't, no amount of predator killing will do much good. Somewhat the same with turkeys, except turkey numbers are even more dependent upon good weather conditions for nesting and rearing young.

Here at our house we have 40 acres, with all but 6 acres or so in dense mature forest. Not good quail habitat. And we're surrounded by farms that raise cattle, so there's nothing but fescue and cedar trees as far as you can see. When we bought the place, our 6 cleared acres were also in fescue, and there were no quail anywhere. We plowed the fescue under for two years and then planted the whole 6 acres in native warm season grasses, built a pond, hinged some of the cedars up in the woods, and cleared a couple places for small food plots. A covey of quail soon appeared, and in the 20 or so years since, that covey has lived on our place. By the end of every summer, the covey has anywhere from 15-20 birds. By the end of the winter, with no hunting of them, the covey has 5-6 birds left.

Now...we have several bobcats that use our land, along with plenty of coyotes, raccoons, possums, skunks, the occasional fox; we have a pair of red-shouldered hawks that nest in the woods every year, redtailed hawks all over the place, Cooper's hawks regularly taking birds off our feeders. I don't kill the black snakes, either. All these things will eat quail or quail eggs, given the chance. I don't kill any of them except the occasional coon or possum that becomes a nuisance. The fact is, our 40 acres, as an island in a sea of horrific quail habitat, has a carrying capacity of about 6 quail, period. If the predators don't get them, bad winters and lack of food would.

So in my opinion, killing predators to have more quail is wishful thinking. Yes, predators need to be thinned sometimes, but most times the predator numbers stay pretty well adjusted to their prey numbers.

More about our bobcats later.

[Al Agnew]

The first bobcat I saw on our 40 acres was when I was bowhunting from a tree stand. This big, lanky bobcat came walking right up to my tree and stopped to take dump right there. He never looked up, and after taking care of business he sauntered off. I was thrilled, since it was only the third bobcat I'd ever seen.

Later that winter, with snow on the ground, I found what were probably that one's tracks, along with at least one other smaller one.

Next time we saw one, Mary's sister was at the house, and she looked out the window toward the wet weather creek down the hill a bit, and shouted, "LOOK-LOOK!!! It's...it's...it's...a COUGAR!!" The bobcat was wandering up the creek. It looked to be a medium sized one, definitely not the big one I'd seen before.

A bit later, Mary glanced down toward the creek just in time to see what was probably the same bobcat, walking up the creek with a fox squirrel in its mouth, the squirrel still alive with its tail waving frantically.

Next time we saw one, it was a youngster that was trying to root something out of a brushpile we had down by the creek.

Then we saw one twice, on the lane leading toward the house, after dark both times.

And then, a couple years ago, we'd been gone from the house for a few days, and driving back down the lane, there was a big bobcat standing right in front of the garage doors. It was late afternoon, and the western sun was hitting the bobcat as it sat and watched us as if welcoming us back. It wasn't in a huge hurry to run, and didn't really take off until I hit the garage door opener and the door started to rise.

The most recent sighting came that fall. We had some young chickens that we were raising, and we had them locked up in our chicken house. The chicken house is just 20 yards or so from the house, and has a large, fenced in chicken yard that comes to no more than 10 yards from the house. A female bobcat with her two young, half grown kittens suddenly appeared one day, and we watched as the three of them continually circled the chicken yard, listening to the chicks inside the house, for a good 45 minutes. It was only after they left that we suddenly realized how we could have gotten absolutely great photos of them...we'd never given a thought to grabbing a camera. Some wildlife artist I am!

[MarkinKC]

It's just a great photo. Used it as the screen background on my desktop computer so I could enjoy it for a week or two. We have 30 acres just north of KC. Inside the city limits. Have a couple of game camera shots of bobcats and it's always fun to see them. Also have no issue with legal taking of the animals - but I could not shoot one. A beautiful animal and I'm really glad the photo was shared on this forum.

Al's comments about the quail got me to thinking. I used to hear some whistle when the crops our farmer friend plant every year get up tall enough to give them some cover. No whistling for the last couple of years. Maybe time for me to plant some native grasses to see if I can bring them back. And the bobcats do look very healthy.

[Njardar]

Great pic, I'm curious what you used fora camera a lens. The critical focus and color are great.