After finding a lot of coonie tracks in the snow I decided to take a walk over to the den and check it out. The smart ones are using my well worn path as their super highway across the pond. Lots of prints in both directions. I found a newly dug out den just on the opposite side prior to the big one I found by following some dirty coonie prints.
When I got to the first den site it was not what I wanted to see! Lots of blood! First the big area on the ground before the big hole...right under where I hang the camera.
Then more directly by the entrance....
I'm not terribly worried about it. Screech bled much worse the time he returned injured and he did fine holed up in the pen until he healed and went on his way again. Also, these pics are the bulk of the bloody spots. Nothing leading away and very little spread around the area, and not a lot directly inside the hole.
Lots of activity to and from the hole...but the blood never trailed further than the immediate den site area....the trail leading away to the right was clean....well as far as blood goes at least! Lots of dirt trailed around though. There were a couple small drops near the smaller back entrance also, but very small.
This was the newly dug den I encountered before getting to the main den. Looks like someone quickly dug one out under an old fallen tree.
This being breeding season and all, I wouldn't be surprised if some male was feeling his oats and caused a commotion! Then someone decided to move into a different room down the hall so to speak to avoid it all maybe! Or maybe the coyotes decided they wanted to move back in! Who knows! But I did set up the camera at the den again in the hopes of scoping it out. Now that the weekend is over there will be less people in the woods to come across it.
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