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68 Posts
Hey guys, I've been off the board for few days getting my #@% kicked on the Interstate. Blowing snow with 62 mph winds created no visibilty to 100 feet visibility and people were still trying to drive 40-50 mph to get to grandma's house for Christmas! Drifts were closing the lanes and we had 62 crashes/slide-offs in a seven mile stretch in 5 hours. No one killed or seriously injured. Several major rear end crashes. 3 foot deep snow-filled medians and right-of-ways contiribute to rapid deceleration when one leaves the road. Snow plows couldn't keep up and the highway dept. finally closed the road.
Now to the point of the title of this post, yesterday morning at daylight, while I was parked a few miles south of the ROAD CLOSED gates waiting to hand out driving awards for those motorist who decide to drive past the gate, I noticed movement to the NW of me just below a ridgeline. Got out the ol' binoculars and found 5 coyotes traveling single file from a russian olive filled draw where they probably bedded to get out of the storm.
As they crested out, they stopped to survey the rolling plains ahead of them where about 500 antelope were feeding, spread across several miles. I got to watch the little buggers while they obviously had murder on their minds. They were always at least a half-mile out and when I finally lost track of them they went under a fence about a mile SW of me. Really got my coyote fever going and I still had to work until 3pm. Dang it!
Didn't get to watch them make a kill, but when the snow gets crusted over, the coyotes can stay on top while the skinny antelope hooves break through. If a pack of coyotes can get an antelope in a drift, it's done. Seems they may be packing up a bit early, but mating season is just around the corner.
Now to the point of the title of this post, yesterday morning at daylight, while I was parked a few miles south of the ROAD CLOSED gates waiting to hand out driving awards for those motorist who decide to drive past the gate, I noticed movement to the NW of me just below a ridgeline. Got out the ol' binoculars and found 5 coyotes traveling single file from a russian olive filled draw where they probably bedded to get out of the storm.
As they crested out, they stopped to survey the rolling plains ahead of them where about 500 antelope were feeding, spread across several miles. I got to watch the little buggers while they obviously had murder on their minds. They were always at least a half-mile out and when I finally lost track of them they went under a fence about a mile SW of me. Really got my coyote fever going and I still had to work until 3pm. Dang it!
Didn't get to watch them make a kill, but when the snow gets crusted over, the coyotes can stay on top while the skinny antelope hooves break through. If a pack of coyotes can get an antelope in a drift, it's done. Seems they may be packing up a bit early, but mating season is just around the corner.