Observations from Winter Coyote hunting days afield
Trailing coyotes and foxhounds through the woods this winter has given up some interesting sights. The first is Coyotes can find a carcass through an awful lot of snow, even when frozen solid. Second is they are pretty effective predators on small game. Followed bunches of tracks and found where they've caught several bunnies, taken some feathers off a grouse, but didn't get him, caught a pheasant, cached some rabbits and pheasents, dug up deer that were probably not found by hunters during deer season and found plenty of places they napped above ground on ledges, highspots, benches, dirt/root mounds of uprooted trees, etc. Found plenty of deer sign, bunched up around swamps in and around the thickest cover and hemlock woods. While coyotes readily utilized the snow trampled tracks deer made they weren't hunting them or tracking them and often passed over 10 t0 20 sets of tracks without even stopping to check them out. Have found places where every snowbunny track had coyote tracks in them, but little sign that they caught the white rabbits. Over the past couple years we've found more hawk/owl killings of snow bunnies than coyote. Over the years we've found up to 5 coyotes traveling in a group though only once and 4 only a handful of times. Mostly one to two and occassionally three coyotes travelling for any length of time together. Much less Gray and Red fox sign as coyote sign increases and Coyote sign has been increasing. It's really a great time to be in the woods! Sometimes go a whole day without seeing anyone but the folks your hunting with. sometimes don't even see them until the end of the day. Wish the cold had never left this wet, crusty, nasty snow stinks for the dogs and for snowshoeing through. Juniorpc
RE: Observations from Winter Coyote hunting days afield
Nice post JPC. It almost makes me want to pull my treestand out of storage just to sit in the winter woods for a morning. ...and it has only been a month since I have been out hunting....
Are you participating in that Tri-County coyote hunt that is promoted each year? I remember reading about it recently in the local paper.
Observations from Winter Coyote hunting days afield
...and it has only been a month since I have been out hunting....
