Cats may take their toll, but the humans are doing more than their fair
share. What's really reduced the quail population in Tennessee is fescue,
they say that it's so thick that baby quail can't move around in it. The
other thing, that really gets me, is the damned weedeaters. People move out
in the country and try to make their entire yard look like a carpet,
including cutting all grass and weeds right up to the road. They have nice
smooth expanses which would be convenient for watching wildlife, if only
there were any wildlife left to watch. Sure, deer and rabbits eat grass,
but quail need bugs and weed/grass SEEDS, which aren't produced when
everything is kept 2" high.
Another thing that gets me is the horse population. Used to be that
horse lovers would have one horse. Now they have 4 of them, in the same
space. The horses not only eat everything down to the ground, but they are
dependent on lots of hay and grain. I hardly ever see anyone actually ride
one of the creatures.
If you stop and think about it, most NAFEXers increase species
diversity. Certainly compared to the average American lawn, we create more
green stuff at different heights, creating both cover and food. At our
place, the soil was so terrible in the cleared area that few species of
weeds would grow. Now the soil is better over an acre or so, and we have
provided a great deal of food to the voles, flying squirrels( they like
tomatoes), chicken snakes (they like eggs) hawks and owls (they like
chickens), cardinals (they like chicken feed, and peas pecked fresh from the
pods) and a multitude of birds that like blueberries. A bit of controlled
predation is not a bad thing, especially as so many wild predators are gone.
The real enemy for birds is loss of food and habitat. I remember someone
years ago commenting that after bug zappers became a fad, they heard and saw
far fewer birds. Donna