Following the coons.

So I'm checking some of the feeders near the edge of the pond. There are always lots of tracks around them, but I come upon a set of coonie tracks that were just too perfect, leading across to the other side of the pond, not to follow.......so I follow them!

So across the pond I head, parallel to the coonies path......

(the tracks perpendicular to mine and the coonies are coyote)

It wasn't far....this is looking back from whence I came! Right from that scrub on the far right of the pic that is in shade.......

And not 2 minutes into my trek among the brush on the other side I come upon this! The tracks lead me right to a den dug into a small hill.

No small den either. Not big enough for a person to squeeze in, but definitely big enough for a coyote. This was the main hole and it is obviously still used. There was so much traffic in paw prints around I couldn't make out heads or tails of who is actually using the thing. Coyote and coon prints everywhere, and it's definitely big enough to be a coyote den! Even if it is being used by the coonies now, it probably started out as a coyote den.

About 6ft further up the slope from the main hole, another entrance...probably the back door!

....also well used and also lots of tracks around it.

Both holes are deep and lead into a dark, open, tunnel that I was not about to stick my head into!! I noticed one other possible hole in the area as well...who knows how extensive a den is under there.

Looking from the back entrance down to the main one you can see prints and trails leading in all directions, 2 of them more used as you can tell by the dirt trail.

The tracks at 12 oclock in the above picture lead through the brush and out onto the pond that is well traveled by them all!

I'm thinking I may take the cooncam and set it up by the den on my days off and see what I get. My only concern would be someone seeing it while walking on the path in the area and taking it or noticing the den and interfering. I'll scope it out Monday and decide then.

The rest of the gang is great. Frigid temps around here are keeping them all in their den boxes! Jingles the bat is sleeping away as usual also, so nothing new or exciting to report other than my discovery!