Ramblings and Such From Hunting Coyote

[DSheetz]

I wasn't very good at howling yet; I had visited with Bill Austin and was learning some of the things that went along with howling and den hunting. I went up to the lower pasture just before the canyon at about 7500 feet got set up in some rocks after slipping up a deep draw and started doing the locator howls. After a few series of howls, I got a reply from two adults and some pups. One of the adults talked as it came but one of them just came in the sound of it was higher pitched so I figured it was a female. They came over to a cow trail on the side of a hill in the next pasture over stood barking and doing sharp short howls at me I watched them doing marks peeing on short sage brush and craping, doing kickbacks, but they were not coming any closer. I messed with them for a while then figured that I wasn't in their area and that the pair I had killed from where I was set up a couple of days before were the owners of my location and the others weren't crossing into it. I slipped out to my truck and went hunting farther up on the mountain till thunderstorms rolled in. The next morning, I went back up and around to the other side of the hill they had been one the day before made my way up a steep road to the top of the ridge and hid my truck found me a good place to set up and call and was just setting glassing the area. When I noticed the buzzards circling, I started really glassing the area and there on the side of the hill near the top I saw a buzzard eating on something that looked like a coyote. I slipped over closer and stayed below the skyline sure enough it was a coyote that the buzzard was eating on, so I made my way over to it and saw another adult and five pups with burn marks on them, nature did my job for me this time. That is the same pasture where I had my son drive through the gate while I was closing the gate I bent down to put the lower loop on the post when lightning struck the fence up the road and knocked me off of my feet. I got the gate closed got in the truck and my son was excited and big eyed he said I know what they mean when they say balls of fire, I saw one rolling down the fence did you see it. No son I didn't see it I had other things going on lets go home you drive till we get to the paved road. It's been an interesting life for me for sure.

 

[DSheetz]

I loved working in the mountains when I was younger even in the winter. I noticed that even the birds left the high country then. You could be up there on a cold clear day with no wind and not hear or see any animals or their tracks in the snow just quiet. But I've been up there when it would be calm and sunny no wind then in a matter of an hour it was a nightmarish windy ground blizzard with nearly zero visibility near the ground if you stood in the back of your truck you would be above the blowing snow, and all you would see was drifting snow that looked like you were looking down on a moving cloud. No matter how fast you would dig the snow out from around your truck it filled back in before you could get another shovel full if you got stuck. I was up there one day snowmobiling in some fresh snow, and it was cold well below zero, my brother-in-law was leading he got too close to a draw that was blown full, beneath the snow were hidden willow trees, luckily, I was far enough back that he was the only one stuck, when I got off to push his machine the snow was over my chest, we got him out and went on. As we were heading back to the house, he went down a hill and crossed a creek I followed him and when I hit the creek my machine started breaking through the ice where the current was the strongest, i bailed off and lifted the machine up and pushed it to solid ice. My coveralls froze solid as we made it to the house. I never followed him on snowmobiles again he just took too many chances in a world that really can kill you. I was with him another time when he and another guy would ride up a hill side that had a snow drift that was curled over the top then turn and run downhill as fast as they could before the snow slide caught up to them. They played that game till the snow caught the other guy and rolled him downhill breaking his machines wind screen. I'm sure glad that I had outgrown that type of thing and knew that I couldn't afford the cost of repairing my machine or the time to let my body heal if it would. I found that I could go farther in twenty minutes on a snowmobile then I could snowshoe back in the rest of the day, ask Rulon about that!

 

[DSheetz]

Today has been hot and windy here, we got to 85 degrees F with winds running in the mid-twenties and gusting to near 40 mph. Our winds normally come from the southwest and that is the direction they have been coming from. Depending on the variety of grass it is turning from golden to light brown to a darker brown on the tops and still kind of green at the bottom near ground level. The downwind sides of the hills are still pretty green as are the side of the round bottom draws that are protected from the hot winds. The plants aren't the bright green of the newer vegetation but are faded and a lighter green now. A lot of the animals are on the downwind hill sides feeding or in the deeper draws feeding kind of out of the wind the best they can be. We just now dropped from 87 to 74 degrees in less than 10 minutes, that is upsetting as it means a front is moving in fast and that it might have hail in it causing the temperature to drop that fast. There haven't been many good days to call here this year. The pups are all out sagebrush camping with the adults now, hunting bugs and small rodents, learning the trade that will keep them alive in the near future. If you get too close now, they will frighten and hide from you but if you aren't too close, they will talk to you and come to the call if the parents don't stop them. Because they are still curious, they come to most small animal distress sounds but run and hide from coyote vocalizations, as long as the volume isn't too high. It's kind of hard to judge their distance as they are still kind of small. I was asked to go out with a new guy once to find a den that he had killed the adults from. I did a lone howl and waited several minutes then did a couple of the short half howls and a couple of barks then set and waited the new guy asked me what the f do you think you're doing about then the pups started talking down the draw, I gave them a few more of those sounds and you could hear them running up the draw thinking they were found by mom. I shot one and the others holed up, so I took them in the hole. He looked at me and said you're a heartless bast234 how can you do that to puppies. I said how could I not end their suffering they for the most part would starve to death at this age, and I know that the ones that don't will be hard to get if they start killing sheep or lambs. He called me puppy killer till he transferred his boss asked him why then told him that I was right in doing it that way.

 

[DSheetz]

With the hot dry winds and weather, the snakes are on the move now,

 

[74honker]

How thick are the snakes in that area? Obviously here in a river bottom there's no shortage lol. Mostly harmless varieties but some less desirable. Wifes not a fan and a crack shot with a .22, even movers, aint many get away from her wrath lol.

 

[Bucklowery]

The heat has set in here too with very high humidity. It will suck all the water right out of you. Turkeys are moving about teaching the young to catch grass hoppers and hide from predators

Thanks

Buck

 

[DSheetz]

It depends on where you are if you are close to a rattle snake den they are very plentiful. The bull snakes and hognose are moving closer to the water sources. the water snakes and garter snakes are plentiful near the river and creeks. I enjoy watching the young birds catching the insects. I jumped a hen sage grouse with her hatch of chicks, they looked like greenish fuzzy golf balls on toothpicks running after the grasshoppers. Are your turkey Oceola? The humidity was high yesterday at 40 percent in the morning but down to the mid-teens in the afternoon. this morning it was 24 and this afternoon it was at 11. I never could adjust to higher humidity even when I was overseas for long periods of time or on the ocean, when my dungarees would dry at night, they would turn white from all the salt in my sweat a lot of water and electrolytes, know when to take a rest it really sux to have heat problems. At that time, they used to push salt tabs 2 an hour was what was recommended, now we know better than that, and they have better things. All stay safe and be aware of the temperatures and other weather conditions.

 

[Bucklowery]

We have the eastern subspecies here in northwest Florida. They are usually paired up with other hens. Not in big groups but 2-3 hens with their broods in the fields. They have been coming up from the creek into the grassy areas to feed

Thanks

Buck

 

[74honker]

Hot and humid here too. I wouldn't know how to act with only 40% humidity lol. Today our high is supposed to be be 93 but with 86% humidity which makes the heat index up to 105. Makes it hard to breath and you will sweat through your clothes just standing still in the shade. Just like you've experienced in Asia DSheetz. I hate summer lol.