Taunting!

Well, I was really hoping to catch a bobcat over the holidays this past year but it didn't work out.

I pulled the cards on my game cameras last weekend and got some pictures of a bobcat taunting me. You can see some of the traps that I had set out for raccoons in the forefront of the first picture. I had a bobcat set about 10 yards to the right of the camera in the this picture that he was walking toward but I guess he didn't like it enough to stick his foot in the trap!


Not sure if this is the same cat or not. I had pulled the traps by the time this picture was taken, but I had a trap about 30 yards to the right of this location too. That is the trap that kept getting clogged up catching 2 possums and a porcupine.

Here's a cropped close up picture of the bobcat in that second picture. Not the best picture but it looks like it has some spots anyway.

I guess that just means there will be more of them out there next year to catch!

I got a few pictures of some deer as well, but nothing too exciting. Still getting a lot of pictures of the tall young 8 pointer. He seems to spend most of his time on my property. It is going to be a tough call next year if I see him whether I will shoot him or not. He should be pushing Pope & Young minimum next year as a 3 1/2 year old but if he makes it to 4 1/2 he could be a REALLY nice buck. Of course if I don't shoot him next year someone else might so it is going to be a tough call for sure. And that is a big "IF" I see him next year during the season. Lots of time to pass before that happens.
I did get some pictures of a 3 1/2 year old this year after the season was over but he seems pretty sporadic. I got a few pictures of him during the season but it seems like he is only around every 2 or 3 weeks. He had a couple tines broken off this year by the end of the season, but maybe next year he will be the dominant buck and not get so broken up.
I think that's about it for now. Nathan

TRAPPED my first coyote!!!

Well I went back to my last post and edited the title from "Trapped" my first coyote, to "Caught" my first coyote, because for some reason catching one in a snare just didn't seem the same as if I had caught it in a foot hold trap.

And, because now I caught one in a trap!!

I have a few traps set about 400 yards away from the house where I've seen coyotes in the past. You can see our house in the background of this picture. I was able to look out through the upstairs window with my binoculars this morning and see that I had a coyote in the trap! I was pretty excited.

The coyote wasn't a giant by any means but it was an average sized coyote and it was really pretty and since it was my first coyote caught in a trap I decided that I was going to have it tanned. I took it to the taxidermist to skin it and he is going to send it off to be garment tanned and although it will take up to 7 months, it should come back very soft and it should last a lifetime that way. Here is a picture of me holding it in the backyard. I'm 6'2" and 225lbs for reference to size.

I'm actually out of town right now, but I'll be back home tomorrow evening. Things are starting to get busy at work so I'll probably be a little slow again on posting for awhile.

That's about it for now. Nathan

Caught my first coyote!

Well, I went down to pull my traps today and was pretty discouraged. I pulled all the traps and didn't catch anything for the 3rd check in a row. I was getting ready to go home and remembered that I had a couple of snares set that I had forgot to pull up so I went to get them and what do you know! I had caught a coyote!

Here is a picture of the snare from when I set it.

It really doesn't look like a coyote would try to go through there, but they do. Not sure if they just don't see the snare or if they think they can go through it without it closing or what but I guess it works.

Not sure when I'll get back down to the land, I might still go quail hunting sometime before the season ends the first part of February but no plans anytime soon.

That's about it for now.

Nathan

They call it trapping for a reason....

Wait, that doesn't make as much sense as "They call it hunting for a reason..." or "They call it fishing for a reason..."

Maybe it should be called "Setting" rather than trapping because I sure have set a lot of traps compared to the number of animals that I've caught in them.

I was really hoping to catch a bobcat over the christmas holidays but it is not looking very promising so far. I set 3 traps out specifically for bobcats and 3 traps out specifically for coyotes and they've been out for 9 nights now and I haven't caught a bobcat or a coyote yet. I did catch 2 possums, a porcupine and a piglet in the traps I set for bobcats, but I haven't caught anything in the traps I set for coyotes. I set 12 traps out for raccoons and I have caught 3 raccoons and 1 skunk in those traps but that is still a pretty poor success rate. I have made a serious dent in the raccoon population on my land though, those 3 bring my total to 19 raccoons trapped on 160 acres within a 12 month period! Trapping the possums should be really good for the ground nesting birds as well, I really have noticed an increase in the quail population from last year, I'm thinking that trapping all those raccoons last spring really did some good.

Here's a picture of the possum that I trapped playing possum. I'd always heard that expression but it really is true. I thought that it had somehow died in the trap until I got right up next to it and it opened it's eyes and looked at me! I'm glad I hadn't reached down and tried to get it out of the trap because they have some pretty sharp looking teeth!

One of the traps that I set for coyotes is right in front of one of my trail cameras where I had gotten videos of coyotes and bobcats in the past. Here's a picture of the trap set. It is called a dirt hole set where you dig a hole and set the trap in front of the hole and the animal is supposed to go look or dig in the hole to get the bait or lure that you place in it and step in the trap.

Here's a vidoe clip of me adding some lure to the hole behind the trap to give you a good idea of the trap location.

And then here is the video that made me sick to my stomach. A bobcat came within about a foot of stepping in the trap but then changed it's mind and walked away!

I had a clip of a coyote checking it out as well but that didn't bother me as much as missing the bobcat. I've been reading on a trapping bulletin board but I guess I still have some learning to do on getting them to commit that one extra step!

That's about it for now. I still have the traps out and plan on pulling them over the new years holiday. The last couple times I've checked them they have all been empty so I'm not too optimistic about the next few days but who knows?

That's about it for now.

Nathan

Merry Christmas!!

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Well, Eli still isn't sure about Santa.

The other day we went to go to a free Santa that they had gone to last year but there was a mix up and Santa wasn't there. So on Tuesday we headed to the Mall and stood in line to get a picture taken with Santa. Everything seemed fine until the kid in front of us cried really hard and Eli just wasn't sure about the whole thing. Cathy ended up sitting beside Santa and held Eli and we were able to crop Cathy out of the picture and it almost looks like Eli was enjoying himself!

But if you look at the true sequence of pictures you get the true story of Christmas!


Eli got a John Deere pedal tractor for his big present and he seems to like it quite a bit although it is a little too big for him to actually make it go with the pedals right now.


I've been out and checked on my traps twice and caught 2 possums, a skunk, a raccoon and about a 15lb piglet but no bobcats or coyotes. Maybe Santa left me a bobcat in a trap for Christmas last night!

Eli is growing up!

I'm a little late posting pictures of Eli's 2nd birthday party, but they are better late than never!

He had 2 parties, one on his birthday Sunday at Fazzolis (he likes spaghetti) and one the next day at CiCi's so he got plenty of cake and cupcakes.

Here he is digging into his birthday cupcake on Sunday:

And the next day showing off his excellent table manners!

It really is amazing how fast they grow up. It really sneaks up on you until you look back at some of the older pictures.

Here is a picture of him from last year:

Last year he wasn't too happy when he sat on Santa's lap so Cathy has been working with him this year and we are hoping for a good experience for him tomorrow when we take him to see Santa. He has been wearing a Santa hat quite a bit lately and if you ask him what Santa says he replies "Ho, Ho, Ho!" If you read lips you can tell exactly what he is saying when he is pointing to Santa while reading a book tonight.

And I just thought this picture of him was too cute:

I might update the blog tomorrow with pictures from his visit to Santa but I wouldn't hold my breath on it. I've been pretty busy at work but it looks like I'm going to get to go down to the land some next week and try my hand at trapping some more. I'm really hoping to trap one of the bobcats that I've been getting trail camera pictures of but so far the only thing I've been able to catch has been raccoons and skunks so we'll see how it turns out.

If I don't make a post before then I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!

Nathan

Vegas Vacation!

Well, kind of...

I had an accounting conference out in Las Vegas and I have a companion pass for Cathy on Southwest Airlines, and Eli is under 2, so they were both able to fly out with me for free. Work was paying for most of the hotel bill, so we decided to make a mini vacation out of it.

Most people think of Las Vegas only as the gambling, lights, etc. but one of our favorite things to do when we are there is go out to Red Rock canyon. It is less than a 30 minute drive from the strip and it is very pretty and a lot of fun. Eli loved running around and climbing on things and throwing rocks. There is something about the smooth rock formations that just screams out "CLIMB ME"! I carryed Eli up a few spots but Cathy kept me in check on taking him on anything too difficult.

Here are a few pictures from our visit to Red Rock:



Believe it or not, the conference was pretty good and I got a lot out of it. I did play poker a few times and I felt pretty good about my skill level compared to many of the players. I did lose a little money but most of the time I did get my money in when I was ahead, luck just didn't go my way the first night. I played a total of about 12 hours over 2 nights and ended up down a little over $100. That's cheaper than most of the shows out there and I got quite a bit of entertainment value over the 12 hours I played.

Cathy and Eli had a good time shopping and went out to Red Rock canyon a couple times. Eli liked the fountains at Bellagio and the Volcano at the Mirage is working again so we saw that. Cathy took him to the free Circus at CircusCircus and they enjoyed that also although there wasn't an Elephant so I'm not sure it counts as a true circus!

Nothing else terribly exciting on this end.

Nathan