Snowshoes
Well-known member
This morning was fairly clear to start but you could see yesterday’s fog had given the landscape a very crisp wintery look to it. With little evidence of a breeze, each step I made seemed to echo into the nearby trees on my westward journey to an area where coyote frequent. Got set up and after a half hour of glassing, only one distant coyote was found. Having called this area fairly recent, I resisted the temptation of breaking the morning silence with the whaling of a poor ole injured rabbit.
Let a few more minutes pass before calling it quits and starting the walk back. Got halfway and decided to deviate off my route and check out a large slough. Tried carefully to pick a decent trail through a thick stand of chokecherry trees but end results were still frost down the back of my neck.
With my first step exiting the trees, I was rewarded with the sight of one, two, and then a third coyote. The first two are on the ice roughly 250 yards out but I don’t trust the ice yet, so they are safe. The third one is a fair ways to the west but it too is standing in the middle, making it also safe. The coyotes are eyeing each other up and unaware of my presence. My plan is to wait till one of them decides to put their paws on either shore before firing a shot.
The “plan” is short lived when I notice a blanket of fog rolling in. The forecast was for fog and sure enough here it is. Within a couple minutes the far shore is no longer visible and it seemed to have consumed the coyotes also. A few minutes pass and things clear up some but I don’t see the pair anymore. The single is now heading north across the ice, I need to travel a couple hundred yards west in order to have any chance for a clear shot, so off I go.
Made it roughly 100 yards when I have a different coyote come out of the trees and stop at the edge of the reeds. The coyote spots me and starts trotting away but kept glancing back as it loped away. It makes a fatal mistake of stopping for one last look. Sixty Four grains of lead caught it square in the chest!
The break in the fog was short lived and by the time I had drug the coyote back to the truck, visibility was almost nil. Decided to call it a morning and headed home.
Let a few more minutes pass before calling it quits and starting the walk back. Got halfway and decided to deviate off my route and check out a large slough. Tried carefully to pick a decent trail through a thick stand of chokecherry trees but end results were still frost down the back of my neck.
With my first step exiting the trees, I was rewarded with the sight of one, two, and then a third coyote. The first two are on the ice roughly 250 yards out but I don’t trust the ice yet, so they are safe. The third one is a fair ways to the west but it too is standing in the middle, making it also safe. The coyotes are eyeing each other up and unaware of my presence. My plan is to wait till one of them decides to put their paws on either shore before firing a shot.
The “plan” is short lived when I notice a blanket of fog rolling in. The forecast was for fog and sure enough here it is. Within a couple minutes the far shore is no longer visible and it seemed to have consumed the coyotes also. A few minutes pass and things clear up some but I don’t see the pair anymore. The single is now heading north across the ice, I need to travel a couple hundred yards west in order to have any chance for a clear shot, so off I go.
Made it roughly 100 yards when I have a different coyote come out of the trees and stop at the edge of the reeds. The coyote spots me and starts trotting away but kept glancing back as it loped away. It makes a fatal mistake of stopping for one last look. Sixty Four grains of lead caught it square in the chest!
The break in the fog was short lived and by the time I had drug the coyote back to the truck, visibility was almost nil. Decided to call it a morning and headed home.
