Another Gut Pile - Bone Yard - Scavenger Thread

[Curmudgeon]

Everyone with scavenger photos should feel free to share them on this thread. I posted my lamb butchering scraps on someone else's gut pile thread. However, I thought I would start one for the coming season. The lamb remains disappeared quickly. Look closely at these shots and you will see a colander shaped chunk of edibles. It is what remains when your render fat to make suet for the birds. These photos are not in order. The fisher checked it out first. The fox spent a lot of time sniffing, biting it, jumping back after biting it, then finally it dragged it out of sight. There was not sign of it this afternoon.

A couple of our GPS tracked Golden Eagles just got within cell phone range after 7 months out of touch. I'll be posting selected research site photos here once that starts up in late December.

[Curmudgeon]

The disappearing gutpile: The gutpile was new yesterday around 4:30. 2 deer checked it out during the night but nothing fed. At 7 am ravens and these turkeys showed up. I don't think the turkeys fed. 4 hours and 20 minutes later the gutpile was consumed by ravens and crows. This 11:19 photo is the next to the last. Done.

Edited November 8, 2017 by Curmudgeon
forgot something

[wooly]

First visitor to the first carcass cam set of the year.

This one came as a bit of a surprise on a new property I've never run cams at before. Still only the second fisher I've ever caught on cam.

 

 

[Curmudgeon]

Thanks Wooly. I love how they move.

Here are a couple of the 2500 shots from the boneyard that I found when I returned from the Dacks. in 468 the redtail is mantling. That is a possessive posture that covers the food. It is only done when a competitor is nearby, usually of the same species.

 

Edited November 13, 2017 by Curmudgeon
forgot something

[Curmudgeon]

I set the camera on the second gut pile too high. Lots of photos of redtail and raven heads.

From the bone yard, a starving dog we can't get close to, and a flying squirrel.

 

[Paula]

Poor pooch 

[Water Rat]

Someone needs to put that dog down........or rescue it.

Hate seeing stuff like that.

[JRod 8G8H]

someone needs to round up that dog before it dies a bad death

[Curmudgeon]

I sent a photo to the dog warden. She may try to trap it after the weekend. We'll be butchering the harvest Monday and dumping the bones there. The warden has a big live trap for dogs.   

[rachunter]

On ‎11‎/‎17‎/‎2017 at 12:18 PM, Curmudgeon said:

   

have you ever seen a bald eagle on one of your gut piles? when I was up at my place in the ADK I keep seeing one flying around the only thing I could think of was it was looking for gut piles left by deer hunters.

[Curmudgeon]

I get eagles regularly in the bone yard. I posted a photo of 2 together in someone else's gut pile thread a few weeks ago. There were some gut pile eagle photos posted last fall.

Gut piles here the last 2 weeks lasted less than 5 hours after daybreak because there are 20 ravens around. That doesn't give eagles much time to find them. The ravens cache a lot of food so it disappears quickly.

There are many gut piles since yesterday. The 2 I have cameras on now haven't been touched. That's better than getting 2500 photos of ravens. Maybe I'll get some mammals.

[rachunter]

thanks 

I had a refig problem last week and thru everything out back in a pile the ravens wiped out everything but the raw shrimp in a few hours. three days later and the shrimp was still there. I even saw a feral cat walk away from the shrimp.

[Curmudgeon]

We butchered 4 deer today. In a few days I should have some more interesting bone yard shots. I took the card out of the bone yard camera while I was there. There are some interesting red-tailed hawk shots and a red fox that have been picking at the bones. There is also a shot from gut pile #2, covered with some of the local ravens.

[Curmudgeon]

I went out this morning to check cameras, having finished filling the DMAP tags yesterday. I've got cameras on the two new gut piles on my property, and the bone yard. The bone yard was somewhat boring - repetitive raven and redtail photos - except for this cougar. It's really a bobcat but with all those NY cougar sightings, this one could be convincing. 

One gut pile has not been touched. I didn't even change cards. It's funny since my first crossbow gut pile lasted only 4 1/2 hours. There is a huge amount of food out there right now.

The other has been very active with blue jays, a very hungry red squirrel and a few nocturnal mammals.

Happy Thanksgiving to all the hunters and scavengers out there.

[Curmudgeon]

Things have been slow at the bone yard. I think there is so much food on the landscape that the scavengers are spread out. There have been 2 flying squirrels there. The gut piles are almost gone but it has been the usual cast of characters. 

Anyone who has been paying attention knows I've been pushing lead free ammo for hunting as a conservation measure to protect birds of prey. I came across a sick red-tailed hawk a few days ago. I suspect it is lead-poisoned. It stayed on the ground until I was about 30 yards away. Then it flew towards me and landed about 15 feet high. It is too mobile to catch. It may be one of the redtails I've been photographing. There are gut piles all around, and most them contain lead.

[Chef]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Curmudgeon]

Very cool bear.

It amazes me how long the gut piles are lasting now that rifle season has started. Because of the ravens, my first lasted 4 1/2 hours. The second almost a day. When I checked about a week ago, they were still mostly there. Too much food all at once. Here are some shots I got from a card swap last week. I'm hoping to get up there again today for another check.

[Curmudgeon]

I'm still getting lots of fisher photos on the carcasses. I think there are two. One is much more robust than the other. Red squirrels are really working the gut piles. These raccoons showed this week.

[f3cbboy]

the second pic in above post of the bobcat is cool. he is a stud.  i agree that one could easily be misconstrued as a cougar.

[ny hunter]

Some great pics .

[Curmudgeon]

Yesterday we got a dusting of lake effect. There is beautiful tracking snow this morning. Fisher tracks are everywhere. This includes 2 sets side by side - one large, one medium. I don't know if these animals were together. Breeding season is probably a little ways away. Only one of them was on the carcasses last night. Other that the fisher, crows and a red-tailed hawk have been picking at the remains.

My people have started setting up eagle research sites now that deer hunting is over. I cannot set up my site until I am done with Christmas trees. I should have some photos next week.

Last week customers were finding a porcupine in the trees. This past weekend it was a dead gut-shot deer. Scavengers had been on it but had only eaten part of a haunch and shoulder. They hadn't gotten into the lead-contaminated guts. I'm taking that one to the DOT pit. It will not be used as eagle bait.

Here's one of the fisher shots from early this morning.

[helmut in the bush]

Great pictures, very interesting what show's up to the pile. Has the dog been back?

[Curmudgeon]

The dog was only here one day.

[Curmudgeon]

I was thinking of pulling the camera off the bone yard. However, when I got there, there was over 1000 new photos. Many of them are crows and woodpeckers but there are some good fisher photos. This coyote - which looks young, and small compared to the deer carcasses - looks like it got wet. It was around this AM while it was still below zero. It doesn't seem to be drying out very quickly.

I was

[hunter49]

  Great  pics!