Brush Hogging Pasture With Raptors And Rodents

I get the same reaction.

Couple years ago I was out mowing and a coyote started following me at about 50 yds out for the same reason. One year I was hitting a field that hadn't been done in a couple years and was full of bunnies, got to watch one getting snatched up. They get to the point; tractor+ brush hog = easy meal.

My plot is done, just refilled my feeder and put out another trophy rock. My neighbor (the real farmer) is doing a 5 acre corn field for me this year with no plans to harvest. Waiting to see what effect that has on the patterns this fall.

I have noticed the bush hawg shakes free a lot of snakes. Hawks like them, too.

Down here it's the cattle egrets that follow you gobbling up grasshoppers, rats and mice. I saw one dive in and grab a quail once so, just like everything else, they don't always help things.

Take a haybine into a field of fescue & timothy sometime, you'll have hawks flying cover and coyotes running alongside you.

Maybe not as exciting as some of you guys but my tractor attracts swallows, both tree and barn, for a meal of bugs that I kick up. At times I get almost 20 birds swooping and amazing with their aerial acrobatics. They often get as close as 5 feet.

I had similar "friends" who thoroughly enjoyed my disturbances with the shredder. The foxes were the most fun to watch.

Patocazador said:

Down here it's the cattle egrets that follow you gobbling up grasshoppers, rats and mice. I saw one dive in and grab a quail once so, just like everything else, they don't always help things.

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Egrets used to follow the tractor around when we mowed our farm also, there was an owl that would sometimes follow for a while too.

Last year we moved into a house on 5 acres and I mowed the pasture and proceeded to have 3-4 hawks getting meals on wheels for the next 45 minutes it was cool watching them so close. They would get a gopher or field mouse within 60-70 feet of the tractor.

I really like the rabbits, quails and turkeys so it doesn't bother me to see a 5 foot rat snake come flying out the side of the rotary cutter.

Bush hoggging my grandpas place is fun, turkeys come out for the bugs, hawks for the varmints, foxes, coyotes, and the occasional bobcat pick up the scraps.

If you ever want to know how healthy your deer population is, turn off the tractor and immediately blow a fawn distress call in the middle of the field. The does will all come running to protect whatever baby they think is in danger.

I burned 17 acres of tall grass prairie and I think every hawk in the county showed up.

45 years ago I worked for Santa Fe Railroad for a year or so. There was a slowwww run from Sealy, Texas down to Bay City that was done at night, traveling old track at about 10/15 MPH. Every night we'd pick up an owl at Eagle Lake that would fly in front of the engine and peel off into the dark to pick off vermin it was spotlighting with the train. Smart bird.

Ooops sorry. I have some technical difficulties to work out. I tried to post a video but apparently don't know how.

'Ill keep trying.

Edit: my file is too big to upload. I'll have to edit it to the proper size. After I get the right software and learn how to use it. Don't hold your breath. It was a nice depiction of a flock of swallows feeding in front of my tractor.

Danoobie said:

I have noticed the bush hawg shakes free a lot of snakes. Hawks like them, too.

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Yes they do. Saw a big Red Tailed Hawk just last week swoop down in the pasture behind my house and fly away with a 3' snake in its talons. Pretty thick snake too. Larger than I would have thought it could carry.

When I bush hog I never have as much entertainment as you guys. Its just riding along thinking “I need a Taurus Judge to shoot at, and probably miss, all the field rats and mice that are running away”

It’s one of the more boring summer chores I have. Come to think of it, when cutting hay there are usually some “cattle egret’s” (called white cow birds around here) following along, but never when bush hogging, maybe because we don’t bush hog near cow pastures.

When I mow my little suburban 1/2 acre on my riding mower, if he's out, the only thing following is my dog barking at me. lol

DeepSouth said:

When I bush hog I never have as much entertainment as you guys. Its just riding along thinking “I need a Taurus Judge to shoot at, and probably miss, all the field rats and mice that are running away”
.

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^^^^^^^^
See all kinds of things when Bush Hogging....depending on which pasture it is. But the one right behind my house isn't very big (about 10 acres) and I can mow it quickly with the 17' bat-wing. I usually mow that one in ever smaller circles starting at the perimeter fencing and mow 'to the middle'.

Man....all the rabbits, rats, field mice and snakes that make a dash for it those last few passes is incredible. I don't bush hog at all this time of year because of all the newly born Deer Fawns. I'll start again about late August.

When I was much younger, I was the assigned bale hauler..
View attachment 793990
We had a bale loader attached to the side of the truck.. Driver would go along the rows of bales and pick them up and I would stack them on the truck.
As a bale was coming up I notice heads and tails of rattlesnakes sticking out of the bale.. Apparently the baler had picked up a bunch of rattlers in the windrow and baled them.

I got off.

As it turned out, all of the snakes were dead, having been baled up the day before, but I wasn't taking any chances.

. I had run into a few snakes before while on horseback.. I can tell you that was quite a ride. I told that old hoss, " Buck all you want to, I ain't a comin' off today!"

Target rich environment!!!
Probably cool weather. They’ll gather up to winter-over in dens like that. Collective metabolism keeps them warm.

(Lawyers convention?)

DeepSouth said:

When I bush hog I never have as much entertainment as you guys. Its just riding along thinking “I need a Taurus Judge to shoot at, and probably miss, all the field rats and mice that are running away”

It’s one of the more boring summer chores I have. Come to think of it, when cutting hay there are usually some “cattle egret’s” (called white cow birds around here) following along, but never when bush hogging, maybe because we don’t bush hog near cow pastures.

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H&R single shot would be more effective, more versatile, and less expensive.

sixgunner455 said:

H&R single shot would be more effective, more versatile, and less expensive.

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I’ve considered that, I actually have more than one 410, matter of fact I have a H&R single shot. The problem is my tractor is a older Ford 4100, so no cab so storage is an issue. The other problem is a long gun would require 2 handed operation, which means I’d either have to stop the tractor or take both hands off the wheel, which isn’t ideal.

Sorry. Another failed attempt.

I have had wounded quail get picked off by red tailed hawks before I could get to them. Also a couple of mockingbirds follow me around when I mow my yard. They will pick bugs right from under my feet.