Scouting around.

[Bob Mc]

I’ve been out scouting to see what game is around and which roads are open this year. Deer and bear seasons open here this coming weekend, but it’s still hot and dry and smoky from the fires we’ve had all summer. Supposed to have a major cooldown in the next few days, but we need rain real bad. Still feels more like fishing weather than hunting season. I’ll be going out with a buddy tomorrow morning in some mountains east of here that I don’t know a lot about. That’s his hunting country and he knows his way around.

There are a few bear here, feeding on the manzanita berries. I found this cat track on the mountain behind my house.

http://photos.imageevent.com/bobmc/huntingandwildlife/C%20and%20D%20tracks.jpg

[Jerry]

looks like that cat is tracking a deer.

Great photo

[tcoop]

Not having them in our area, I'm not up on my cat tracks. Is that a Bobcat or a mountain lion. I would guess a mountain lion.

tcoop

[Bob Mc]

Yep. That’s a lion track. The size in relation to the deer track should be a give away.

The trip to the mountains east of here was a smashing success. Since it was actually a photo safari for coyotes, and involved a coyote tolling dog at work, I put the story down in the hunting dog forum. Links to video clips included.

[tcoop]

LOL, Yea, but I know how small your deer are out west. :P That coulda been a house cat. :laugh:

tcoop

[Bob Mc]

You've got me there tcoop. There are mule deer in the country east of here, but where I am we just have the lowly black tails.

[outlaw from Idaho]

I have seen two different bear and one couger in the last few days, cross the sixty ackers the cabin is on. They were about 250-300yds out. Have'nt seen many deer moving, maybe the horse's have pushed the out. I would like to call in a couger ,after calling coyotes since 1970 I sure would like to turn a couger. Outlaw

[Bob Mc]

Outlaw, if you have the cats there, they can be called. I think the choice of stands may have a lot to do with it. If you read the post I made down in the Hunting Dog forum, and watched the videos, you see that we found a pretty fresh cougar track that day. My hunting buddy has been calling coyotes for 58 years, and the numbers must run into the 1'000s. In that length of time he has called in exactly 1 cougar! The particular cat that left the track we saw walked over to a spring and drank. From there it went off into the timber on our right. If I wanted to try for that cat I would have gone into the timber too, and up on the nearby ridge to set up a stand. Instead we walked a couple of hundred yards to our left and set up on the edge of a large meadow where cattle were grazing. We called in a pair of coyotes and had a great time shooting video of them and the tolling dog at work, but no cat.