bobm
Garden Master
I guess the old adage rings true... Location, location, location ...Where my ranch is located in the Big Valley is a high desert type vegetation just a mile from the High Sierras at 502' elevation then rapidly to 1,000-2,500ft then to a ski resort just 10 miles up the road. There are thausands of acres of grape vinyards, nut and fruit trees , orange, and lemon orchards as well as row crops, alfalfa fields, huge dairies, beef cattle, horse breeding farms (mine too) and sheep operations near by. We have coyote community sings 2 times at night about 1/2 hour after dark and then just before dawn. Packs numbering into the dozens in and around our 20 acre ranch ( 10 miles from town) in an area of 20 acre parcels then 160 A to 5,000 +++ acres. Coyotes, Raccons, possums, rats, groundsquirrels( I demise about 100 per year on our ranch alone), are daily visitors . bobcats, cougars, black bears and recently ferral hogs several times a year. There are huge numbers of song birds, doves, blackbirds ( flocks numbering in the thausands in the fall), starlings (hundreds) , crows. Flies, ants, crop pests GALORE. Many farm dogs and city slickers dumping their dogs and cats off regularly roam constantly. Most of these dogs as well as the cats fall prey to the coyote packs. Example... I lost my 2 Boxer dogs ( 90 and 95 pounds of solid muscle guard dogs). My next door neighbor lost his 105 lb Rottie to a pack just 100 yards from their house ( all he found the next morning was it's head and hide). I used to get 10-12 cats 2 times a year from the local pound for pest control due to the fact that the life span of a country cat is 2 months on average. Most of the neighbors as well as anyone within at least 10 miles of us ) have abandoned chicken houses and pens due to these carnivores/ omnivores. The town suberbs also have all of these animals that have a chicken / garden snack or two from unwary wanna be farmers. We also own a home in a town in SW Washington... raccons, and possums visit our property several times a week, coyotes seem to travel in singles or doubles, I saw an in velvet 4 point buck at the edge of town just last week. No one keeps chickens around here too , none that I am aware of unless they do out of sight/ hearing and out of town. There are MANY native tree groves, wetland/ swamp lands, berry bushes, native bushes with berries, etc. here that the local wildlife eat. However, there are very few song birds , doves ( I have seen maybe a dozen rhis spring/ summer), small flocks of blackbirds, starlings, crows, and few sea gulls. There are only a few Insects ( with a few exceptions such as aphids and some fruit/ vegetable crop pests ,grass lawn grubs) of any kind are nowhere near the HUGE numbers as in Cal. as well as many other areas for the local wildlife to eat. Low prey species numbers equate to few predators. 
