I did feed a lot of Hawks, foxes, coons, feral cats and other vermin. I got expert advise, good advise and quack advise in my efforts. Some worked and some did not. Without strict preditor control nothing worked well. You can not fool Mother Nature.
I believe that 80-90% of the problem with declining or decimated wild bird and small game populations lies within the statement above. It has been shown that even where good habitat still exists, and scorched earth clean farming is not practiced, bird populations are still way lower than when predators were hunted hard and hawks and owls were not protected. The Golden Years of Ringneck Pheasant hunting my Dad experienced coincided with bounties being paid for shooting hawks and owls, and good prices for fox skins. The introduction of the Eastern coyote has put a double whammy on small game in my area.
But predator populations rise and fall also, which explains why there are short periods when small game populations seem to quickly rebound. When you actually get out in the field and see those piles of feathers or rabbit fur, you can see that it wasn't habitat loss or herbicides that did that. Those hawks, coyotes, fox, owls, skunks, etc. hunt 365 days a year. Reducing their numbers will do a lot more than replacing tree lines and fence rows. But good luck trying to convince your Game Commission that having a Red Tailed Hawk on every telephone line may be a problem.
