The racoons eat up the fish in my ponds. I only buy feeder fish to put in the small ponds. They litterally go wading in the ponds so bigger fish just become racoon food.

Christine, that sounds like a NIGHTMARE to me! I had no idea that a bird would (or could) kill a raccoon! It's almost more than I can stand to find bird feathers in the yard when the resident hawk gets a mourning dove for lunch. At least it's just feathers, and my plants aren't destroyed. I just hate it when something dies, even thought it's just a fact of life. Mourning doves are at the bottom of the food chain around here.

Natalie -- not sure if I read your post wrong -- but the blue heelers we have are dogs (not birds)!

PS - did you know Mourning Doves mate for life?

I thought I read Blue HERON, not heeler! Too funny!! Well, not for the mess that had to be cleaned up, but you should have seen the fight that I had pictured in my head!

I did know that about mourning doves, which makes it even more sad when one is eaten for lunch by the hawk. But, I do know that they supposedly get a new mate when one of them dies.

That must have been pretty funny -- a Blue Heron pecking a Racoon to death!

Yep, that's what it was! And with that long beak, it was a raccoon shish kabob! I fell asleep last night laughing about that!

My son was driving my car a week or so ago, and hit a monster raccoon. There is over $1500 in danage to the frint end of the car.

I think the neighborhood raccoon or the neighbor's cat got one of the many bunnies in my yard last weekend. I found a partial carcass laying in an area past my invisible fence, so I know it wasn't my dogs that committed the murder, nor was it my cats since they are indoor cats only.

I went to pick up the body before cutting my grass the next day, and something absconded with the corpse.

I didn't want to bury it anyways.

And it's not that I like bunnies - I don't if they are in my yard, eating my flowers. The further away from me critters like deer, raccoon & bunnies stay, the happier I am.

As for the mourning doves, they are ground feeders and are all around my bird feeders eating the dropped seed. I keep a shallow bowl on the ground for the birds to drink out of, and I have watched those darn doves perch on the edge, face outward and poop in the water!

Stoopid birds! ~Jan

Bunnies are cute but they can do much too much damage in the garden.

Yes. I had to re fence my gardens even in the front yard. I was hoping I had enough flowers the damage wouldn't be that noticeable, but with the drought, I had to fence things off to keep from losing any more.

And they drive my dogs nuts. But these bunnies (and squirrels too) know EXACTLY where that invisible fence line is located, and they stop running as soon as they cross it. They know the dogs won't follow them that far.

We've had bunnies for years and years around our 3 acres. One group has lived in one of my "wilder" beds since I built it a long time ago. This year it's really wild since I haven't cleaned it of all the huge weeds. But, the bunnies love it. Our dogs have chased rabbits for as long as they have been here and some gone on to heaven now. That group of bunnies run a huge circle around the yard, making several stops to ensure the dogs are still on their trail. When the bunnies get tired, they will go up to the greenhouse/shed combo and litterally sit there and watch the silly dogs searching everywhere for them. For some reason the dogs have never figured out that the bunnies are going under the small porch on the shed. It's so funny to see the bunnies raise up and look to see where the dogs are. Now that we are down to just one dog, he doesn't run the bunnies very often. He's like me, old and tired.

I have found several of my big seed pods that were laying down close to the ground and I think the dear little bunnies have been eating on the pods. It sure looks like they gave them a chomp or two. I hope they soon learn that this act is not tollerated in Mona's garden. I would hate for the soft white tails to be hanging from a post in the greenhouse!

Way to go Mona- that's telling them!!!

Ouch Jan! That's a lot of damage from a raccoon! They really get large here though, so I guess hitting one would make a big dent.

Too funny Mona!

Ya'lll have all got to know, I'm a big old softy. I don't even kill a wasp unless it just insists he must live in my face. I'll leave the area and go do something else for awhile to let them leave, if they will. I hate killing anything.

I once lost it and tried to kill a vole that was eating my hostas. Caught him red mouthed pulling a small hosta down into his tunnel to eat it. I just happened to have a spade in hand and struck it down into the tunnel. Well, being me, I only injured the poor little thing and it screamed and so did I. My son was 17 at the time and he came outside to see what had happened. I was sitting in a big heap with my head down crying. He thought I had cut my foot off!!! When he found out what was wrong, between my sobs, he finished the job of the killing the vole and gave me a "good" talking to. I was not to ever try to kill anything else. He was quite big enough to do that for me and I wouldn't have to be a ball of crying broken hearted mom for hurting that poor vole that had just finished off a $20 hosta.

I'm not against killing animals, I just don't want to do it. And then, only when it's for food or absolutely no other way around it. But, I sure will go get someone else to do it if they start eating my hard earned hard worked plants! Oh, I'll let them have a few, just not my best ones, Please!!

You big ole softy!!!! Thank goodness for boys!

Heck, not me. I would have no second thoughts to doing those critters in.

I can't hardly kill a fly. If I can get it to fly outside through the door, I'll do that instead of killing it! All spiders get relocated outside too. I just don't have it in me to kill stuff. Except for ants and wasps. Ants are destroying my yard this year, but they are easy enough to spray. My husband is deathly allergic to bees, so I spray wasp nests when I see them. Honey bees are totally safe here. I tell him that he'll just have to stay inside because I'd never kill one. Wasps are safe too as long as they don't build a nest near the house.

I was raised in a family of hunters, and I'm married to a hunter, but I'm just not cut out for it myself. I actually enjoy hunting, because you see some amazing things, but I could never kill an animal, or watch one get killed. My husband always wants me to go bird hunting with him, and I promised I would this year, but only to watch the dog. He swears that she's an amazing sight to see out in the field, and it's what she was bred for. He really doesn't kill much himself because he's so busy watching the dog do her thing! I'll eventually get him to where he hunts, but doesn't kill. That won't take much! He gave up big game hunting a few years ago. Besides, hunting with a camera is way more fun than hunting with a gun! There's nothing to clean if you "get" something, and a camera doesn't weigh as much as a shotgun does! He'll eventually figure it out.

Just let him think, that HE decided this and you'll be going camera hunting soon enough. Works everytime around here.