Need Help In Central Texas.........

[Bigtex]

Interesting hike yesterday, went to retrieve a Game Cam that I had set up near the bones shown in earlier posts. It was after 6 PM, and starting to get dark, All at once, my dogs & I were surrounded by a pack of Coyotes in a wooded area. They were yipping & howling, making a god awful noise, and very close, but couldn't see any of them. My dogs luckily had good instincts, and were right by me, with my little normally fierce Rat Terrier practically jumping up in my arms. It was pretty cool though, and I was howling right back at them. I took an aggressive approach, but they stood their ground very close, but never reveling themselves, crafty buggers. I'm wondering if maybe I was near their den, with young pups.

 

Has anyone else run into a situation like this before?

 

Ahhhhhh......finally had enough rain to fill my pool, and it's been mostly dry for 2 years:)

[Guest]

Heh, thought those little terriers usually wanted to fight the whole pack. Sounds kind of atypical for coyotes though.

 

If the rain has come in after a long drought, could be good time for print hunting, anything crafty might have forgotten where the soft spots are, get itself in a dead end, and have to go through soft stuff.

[Bigtex]

Hey Flash......she is a fighter, but at least had some sense that day. I have an audio recording of the encounter I will try to post later, and you can hear how close they were.

 

I missed almost 4 weeks of hiking, but am back with a vengeance, cool weather, crystal clear water flowing in the creeks........totally amazing beauty, but no Bigfoot sign in my main area near me.

 

Without looking back, and I think this was mentioned in the old forum......part of my main hiking area got surveyed 4 years ago, and some parts, beautiful parts, got hacked up pretty good. It has had years to recover, but the dozers moved in 3 weeks ago, and are destroying a pretty good area for a housing development. I always hate to see this sort of progress, and this one in particular because it cuts right through the area that BF's were using to get in and out of town from the hills on their nightly forays. They will surely continue coming into town, but will have to come a different way now, and I have to find it:)

 

Here's an old homestead/log cabin site, showing 2 corner stones, threshold stone, and some stone steps nearby leading down to the creek. 

[Bigtex]

Been having some nice rain, and good for finding tracks.......here's a nice juvie print, and a very scenic spot:)

[Bigtex]

Here's a really cool large Juniper, often called 'Cedar' down here.......looks like a spider.

 

Ran across this pic, and was my other passion, until my back injury finally caught up with me, had to quit cold-turkey.

[WSA]

That's a whole lot of deer skeletons Bigtex....very mysterious, and sort of creeps me out to see that much concentrated carnage. I would posit it could be a dump for poached deer, but the skull w/rack seems to rule that out. One thing though; that skull at about the .33 sec mark looks to have an entry wound, large caliber, dead center. Did you look closely at that and could you tell me what it looked like to you?

Glad to see you've got some rain.

[Bigtex]

Hey WSA......my thoughts were a head bite from a Cougar.

[Bigtex]

Went camping this weekend with the wolf.......she did well, stayed around pretty good, and her fur coat came in handy in the tent with 42 degree nights, kept my feet warm.

 

Found this on a remote beach on the Colorado River, looks like something was eating clams........recent rain eliminated any tracks, except for a possible one where the red arrow is pointing. 

[Bigtex]

Ahhhhhh.....it's a great day, and a long time coming. I have mentioned in previous posts about a home-made camera trap that I have used occasionally for over 10 years. Unfortunately, it has very limited battery life of about 20 hours, and as a result, haven't used it much. The set up solves many of the issues that its store bought cousins have, and now........daddy got battery life!!! I found a buddy who's an off-duty fireman, and he made these for me, with many more coming. The cameras look like they came off the shelve at Cabela's, and will now last about a month in the field. Yes, this is ancient technology with 35mm, but is better IMO for game cameras because they fire so much faster. A brief recap of my Camera Trap; pressure sensitive rubber mats buried in a game trail - or under a window, in front of cooler at a camp site, etc., and NOT giving off any electrical impulses. Two cameras in different locations, and aimed at a specific spot, so Depth of Field is known, setting up two prefect pictures of the same event. I experimented using more cameras, and works, but the flashes start affecting each other. My next batch will have another connection to plug in, so it starts a field recorder. The idea being the flash at night might set off a verbal reaction.......like a BF busting my cameras all to heck, but hopefully not:)

 

Here's a pic of me with one camera in a tree, and you can tell it fired instantly the moment I stepped on the buried mat.

 

Anybody in Texas that knows of a good habitual BF area.......let's talk, time for the big guy to saw "cheese".

[JanV]

Good job! Nice clear pic. I hope you get the perfect picture. I think the 35mm is a great idea. I am longing to see a clear, unambiguous picture. This setup should deliver it, if BF will cooperate.

[Bigtex]

Thanks Jan.......love the 35MM speed, but there are mechanical noises to give them away - shutter, auto advance, flash at night, and would certainly be a logical conclusion that a BF might try to smash and/or take the cameras.

 

Gotta use these in the right situation where I can be near, and retrieve them immediately, which might be risky business........if I was camping, would want to get 'em and leave the area immediately. A double flash at night will certainly pee something off, and I need to think all possible aftermaths thoroughly through........this is the part where you hunter guys need to chime in please. I can think of three choices : approach the area quickly blasting a few 12 gauge shots in the air along the way, run over there with a bag of food, run over there with nothing???? Maybe I need a remote video too to record my folly:)

 

Whatcha yall think?

[mesabe]

I think it's an excellent idea, thinking outside the box. Plus, not being digital, should eliminate the pixileated blobsquatches, I think. You could have an IR light come on aft. your picture is taken, to scare them off. lol

Another thought, have a camera with a long range lense set up elsewhere, but focused on the spot, set up to work as planned, but not in the immediate vicinity. Utilizing the flash of a different camera. I'm thinking these older 35mm cameras may not be that expensive used. Good luck!

[Bigtex]

Good idea mesabe, do the tele camera wireless......each camera trap uses 2 cameras in different close in locations. I'll also have the negatives, which eliminates the photo-shop deal, I think, definitely a low-tech kinda guy. I buy the cameras on Ebay for around $15 bucks, and the finished product is around $160 each by the time my guy puts it together and ships to me. A little pricey, and that's X2 for each set up......so gotta watch these babies.

[Bigtex]

I looked this Cactus over pretty good, and you can see scares if they've been cut or broken........this formation seemed to be natural, plus in a very remote location, pretty cool.

[Bigtex]

In reference to an earlier post, here's one of the creeks that feeds the Colorado River........notice the Power Line off in the distance, and both being used by Bf to get around, both short & long distances. Now, they might have to find a alternate creek route, at least for a while, until the area gets 'tamed', bridge gets put in this location, and the greenery re-establishes itself. But now the whole area is a torn up mess, as they are cutting & paving streets for the new sub division, with huge equipment every where.

 

There was an amazing area down this creek towards the river, and right near the Power Lines shown. It seemed to be a large area where BF's might have gathered before or after crossing the river under the power lines, but I haven't been able to hike over there for several years, now it's all torn up:(

 

I did take several pictures of this area, and Motel BF, but was in the old forum........if anyone wants a re=run on those, lemme know.