First I had one pair with a complete nest vanish. Okay, that happens. Now this week I had another pair come up missing and they did have 3 eggs in their nest. Not good. About 2 days later, their eggs vanished too. Over the past couple of days, my unmated or just mated SYs have all left. Every single one of them. I have gone from almost a full house (space for 10 pairs) to the 4 pairs that have eggs that just hatched. That's it.
I really didn't have a clue as to what was going on. I was just out in the yard and I noticed something off about my wood fence. I walked closer and hanging from the top of the fence was a baby bunny carcass. It looks like something (hawk or owl) sat on top of my fence and just shredded the baby bunny. I only found bits of fur on the ground and a back leg & thigh hanging from the fence.
I feel helpless to do anything. I haven't even seen (confirmed) that it is a hawk. I just know my PMs are coming up missing and there doesn't seem to be a thing I can do about it.
I couldn't decide if it's an owl or hawk. We see bunnies day and night here (our coyotes have been pushed out by new construction), but you are right. They are more active at night. I thought an owl would take the baby off somewhere, but now that I think about it, it could have just sat there eating. Something with tallons got to it.
I have seen no evidence of PMs being eaten. They are just gone. The PM house is converted to give the PMs a fighting chance. The PMs in the gourds are still here. I swear next year I'm switching to just gourds.
