First Antler of 2013!

I love this time of year. Winters been hanging on, wildlife is surviving on the last remains of stems, acorns and anything else that provides basic calories and nutrition. Just a few weeks from now spring will rear it head and life will again return to the forest.

Still has fresh blood drops on it!

Part of this annual cycle as far as white tailed deer are concerned is a subject I have written about many times, the shedding of the antlers. I always think of Feb 1 as the true beginning of this process that can last for the next 4 weeks.

 Look at his right antler and compare it to the imag eof it ont he ground. The same!!

I went to check my trail camera last weekend and had a few deer walk by with antlers still hanging on. When I went back this weekend to check it I was super excited to stumble across a small very fresh antler about 50 yards from my camera. Then I realized the photo my trail camera captured the week before was the deer who had dropped the antler while he was still holding onto it. very cool!

Here are some more outtakes:

 If I had a dollar for every time i took my own photo on a trail camera....

-Bill

Huge Coyote!... Wolf Hybrid?

I was confused earlier this week by some HUGE 'dog' foot prints in the snow around my house. None of my neighbors have a dog that big, just a medium size black lab across the street but that's it. I know this was not a black lab, these tracks are HUGE.

 Seriously?

Then I kind of forgot about it until i went to check the trail camera in the side of my property today. I knew some thing good would be on the camera when I saw how far the deer carcass had been dragged, also the head was missing. Sure enough, the first documented coyote on the property. Now I feel like I see a lot of coyotes compared to the casual observer and I am very aware of the size of an adult, but this one just looks huge. I cant help but believe that this one has some wolf genes in it.

Call me crazy but look at these 2 shots taken one day apart, a red fox is standing in the exact same location as the coyote. Never have I see such a huge difference in the size of these two animals.

I'm sure its probably just a normal adult coyote but it sure is fun to imagine wolves living among us.

This guy looks like an Alaskan Malmute