Last year the squirrels and chipmunks ran rampage all over New Hampshire, as you’ll recall. They ate everything in our garden and berry bushes before we could stop them – it was the first time in 20 years we picked no raspberries.
This year? We’re entering the “Dammit, eat more lettuce/beats/zucchini/raspberries/blueberries or they’ll go bad!” phase of summer gardening.
Thank you, hawks, weasels, bobcats, foxes, coyotes, etc. etc. Nature is red in tooth and claw, as they say, but right now I’m in favor it.
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and it has become clear that 2019 is a statewide mast crop year – acorns, beechnuts and apples aplenty as expected. This is happening with greatly reduced rodent populations which illustrates the concept of seed predator satiation – there will not be enough rodents to eat all the beechnuts and acorns which assures that beech and oaks will pass on genes as the surplus seeds germinate. From tree perspective, it worked! Starved out the mice, chipmunks and squirrels to prep for bumper crop.