Trail Camera Pictures

I wish I would have saved the series of pictures that went along with this coyote.  The first was a picture of a rabbit.  Two minutes later a raccoon was standing where the rabbit was, then this hungry looking coyote moved in two minutes after that.  I was thinking that was one unlucky cottontail with so many things trying to eat him, and thought for sure he was a goner, but five minutes after the coyote moved off, the rabbit was back sitting right in his tracks.

Every year I put out cameras at a few locations hoping to get a bobcat picture.  This spot has a little cave that I thought was perfect for a pair of bobcats to den in.  Turns out it's perfect for a pair of possums, too.

With so many coyotes around anymore these little canines aren't as numerous as they once were.

I was hoping the buck rubbing on these saplings would return for the camera, but they make a nice frame for this prowling coyote, too.

In the past, this spot along Patoka Lake's Corp of Engineers property, has always been a good late season area for deer.  I wanted to hunt it this year, but never made it over.  I still hope to get over there and do a little hiking this winter.

If there has been a season where I noticed my age start to catch up to me this one is it.  I never made the long paddle down to Stonehenge -- the river crossing that I spent so many October days at in the past.  I set out once to make the long walk into the marsh, but half-way there I stopped and sat on a log until the sun sank below the horizon.  I didn't hike up the steep hill to reach the remote ridgeline that every year is covered in rubs and scrapes on the Harrison/Crawford State Forest property I like to hunt.  Instead I did what I've never done in the past:  I hunted close to the road.  The deer gods were kind to me though and a heavy beamed, grizzled-old, brute of a buck stopped broadside at thirty yards during the early archery season.  The week before my brother loaned me his crossbow and the thing is deadly accurate.

With this arctic blast moving in and its accompanying horrible freeze I often wonder how the critters survive.  But, even the easy days of summer come with a hitch.  I'd take the cold any day over the nag of a swarm of biting black flies.