A couple weeks back, I made mention of the coyotes moving back in to the area around our farm. Their welcome gift to the neighborhood was a dramatic decrease in pictures for a couple of weeks. After hearing them in the vicinity of Moe’s bedding area yesterday at 11AM, I was a little concerned they might run him out of that area. It turns out that he might have made a move, but it’s one that could drastically improve my chances of killing him on opening weekend. I moved one of my cams 50 yards S of my stand in an effort to determine how he was approaching the Hippie Ridge camera when he was coming from the area behind my stand. On the evening of 15th at 6:45PM and again on the 18th at 7:45PM, he came past the SpyPoint that was monitoring the trail I felt he was using to reach the ridge top. He came from nearly the identical location both times and it’s a pattern that differs from his previous tendencies. This makes me think the yotes have pushed him over the ridge and down in the bottom S of my stand. The good news is this makes him WAY more killable with a W/SW wind than he was when he was coming from the bedding area N of my stand. Assuming he continues this pattern, he’s made himself more killable than what he already was and I can live with that! Here are the videos showing his entry route to the ridge about 100 yards S of the Hippie Ridge cam…
The highlight of the week was getting the pictures I have been after all summer long. I hung this camera looking just N or due W with the hopes of catching him in the setting sunlight as it filtered in to this spot. My cams have given me some great pictures over the years, but this series of pictures is probably the best set of pictures I have ever had on a camera. I’ll be taking some of these to the Deer and Turkey Expo next spring in hopes of placing in the trail camera contest. The only thing that bums me out is that I don’t have the time and date correct. I’m having some issues with this BEC right now, so I’ll have to live with it. She’s still taking great pictures despite not being able to set the time and date.
When I checked the cam yesterday, I left 100 pounds of corn and 60 pounds of apples in front of the BEC and a SpyPoint set to take 30 second clips. I fully expect the next cam check to be one of the best of the year. I’ll also be setting a new cam in the same area where the videos above were taken. Now that I know how he is getting to the ridge, I can set the cam in a better position to capture him than I did this time around. As we inch closer to the season, I’m looking for the subtle patterns I might be able to exploit on opening weekend. I have a couple option for the standard S/SW wind that time of year that would get me 150 yards from the Hippie Ridge stand and right on his travel corridor. At this point, all I can do is keep my fingers crossed that he stays safe and that I get the right conditions to kill him in come September 24-25th…
The highlight of the week was getting the pictures I have been after all summer long. I hung this camera looking just N or due W with the hopes of catching him in the setting sunlight as it filtered in to this spot. My cams have given me some great pictures over the years, but this series of pictures is probably the best set of pictures I have ever had on a camera. I’ll be taking some of these to the Deer and Turkey Expo next spring in hopes of placing in the trail camera contest. The only thing that bums me out is that I don’t have the time and date correct. I’m having some issues with this BEC right now, so I’ll have to live with it. She’s still taking great pictures despite not being able to set the time and date.
When I checked the cam yesterday, I left 100 pounds of corn and 60 pounds of apples in front of the BEC and a SpyPoint set to take 30 second clips. I fully expect the next cam check to be one of the best of the year. I’ll also be setting a new cam in the same area where the videos above were taken. Now that I know how he is getting to the ridge, I can set the cam in a better position to capture him than I did this time around. As we inch closer to the season, I’m looking for the subtle patterns I might be able to exploit on opening weekend. I have a couple option for the standard S/SW wind that time of year that would get me 150 yards from the Hippie Ridge stand and right on his travel corridor. At this point, all I can do is keep my fingers crossed that he stays safe and that I get the right conditions to kill him in come September 24-25th…