Yeah, we see all sorts of birds of prey above our forest clearing, including several generations of great horned owls in our backyard.
Yet rabbits run around in daylight with little shame. I think its a smorgasbord out there, all you can eat, with plenty remaining.
There are few foxes here, which is a shame
i used to shoot them on sight to protect my birds but recently i reinforced my run with concrete bricks all around. isnt pretty but it lets me keep the foxes to eat the voles and mice. put some dirt in the 2 holes in the bricks to plant herbs all around which the chics can reach through the wire. everyone’s happy!
It’s coyotes here that people shoot, presumably to protect their pets and chickens 
coyotes kill many deer here in the winter when the deer yard up in the cedar swamps. if there is a crust on the snow the coyotes can stay on top of the 5ft. of snow and force the deer to flounder off their trails. they kill hundreds of deer up here in snowy winters. lynx kill many also.
We are overrun with cute deer and rabbits.
I just srarted the repellant sprays on my young trees as something finally took one down to only a few inches. Not sure who, but it left it in sticks about 5 inches long with nice clean cuts. My gut says it was the groundhog, but I’ve lots of rabbit and deer around. The deer are clearly browsing tips again now. I’m still pretending repellant will work for the voles as well outside, but the inside things are getting offered poison and snaptraps before they start on my seed growing statons. Something small chewed a hole in the bottom of my repellant bag of “peanuts” and ate every last one of them.
Eliot Coleman, the Maine author of books on organic gardening, always sets his traps under a cover. Rodents in general avoid being in the open if they can.
Skunks and possums are bad to steal bait too. Had a pack of coons camp out here several years ago, they got so bold they got up on the porch and drug off and emptied the Tomcat pail in a section of underbrush. Well, didn’t see those fools for a couple years.
I have never had vole damage on any of my trees. I make sure to keep the orchard floor mowed.
I also have taken steps to encourage hawks and owls. There are also lots of feral cats around here.
The hawks don’t necessarily eat that many voles but the voles know they are around.
I have had more damage from rabbits than from voles, but the cats used to keep the vole population down, probably below the damage level.
Used to be, I had a great rabbit-hunting cat, and then the damage was greatly reduced.
I put cages around all my young trees to prevent rabbits
LOL, thanks. Hehe!
Some of my voles holes…
All the bait stations are filled of poison and all the holes i could find also… hate these critters
The new cat is up to 7 voles delivered to our door. I wonder how many she gets that we don’t know about.
Good kitty! I need 100 of those cats 
Yes, I had no idea there were so many voles around.
the voles we get are 3xs that size and are dark brown/ gray on top and lighter gray on the belly with a shorter tail about 1/2in. long. maybe a different vole species?
That one looks like Pitymys pinetorum (woodland or pine vole). They are about 3.25 inches. I’ve got neighborhood cats that that hunt my area but they never get them all.
Earning her keep
