A wildcat at the feeder.
A wildcat at the feeder.
It follows naturally that at a game-management facility that helps feed the game — as is the case with this feeder too — usually some kind of grain or agricultural crop gets scattered out.
Small forest mammals and rodents love these crops very much, and because of this, when things are quiet at the feeder, they take over the terrain.
Their busy gathering, their brisk scurrying about, produces unmistakable and irresistible little rustling sounds that also catch the attention of the predators hunting them.
Both feathered and furred alike.
I’ve had the luck, several times, to follow with a thermal scope, from beginning to end, as a wildcat hunting a forest mouse, barely more than 15m from me, sneaks in with unimaginable silence and then, with playful ease, takes down its prey.
I also had the luck to observe a long-eared owl hunting.
In fact, once it nearly brushed me with its wing when, coming from the direction of the feeder, it wanted to land on the armrest of my stand, then, at the last moment, realizing this was something other than what it first thought, it glided off perfectly silently.
