mudhook
03-07-2007, 05:10 PM
On the 6th I noticed the deer were yarding up along the Dry Brook stream just beyond the register. Bushwacked up Eagle along the south ridge, cold, below 0 ,windy,the snow was perfect.Today , I decided to go back to Graham, bushwacked the north ridge, the snow got deeper and deeper, nothing like the consolidated crust on the south ridge across the valley, most snow I have seen in the Cats this year. A good work out. Both sides are broken out if any one goes before this weekend, short way to do both peaks.
Any way, just past the register this morning I noticed fresh deer tracks leaping off the bank,across the trail and onto the ice on the stream, along side were 2 sets of coyote tracks, in pursuit. Great wads of deer hair lay here and there where the coyotes had nearly grabbed it. The deers tracks were 15'-20' apart. I could see where the deer hit some solid ice and went down, the coyotes had it briefly, some blood and signs of slipping hooves and paws.A few feet away, the blood was every where, the ice broken where all three had gone through into a fairly deep hole. Hoof marks and claw marks all around the edges, one spot the deer must have gotten out only to fall back in. The deer was still floating,frozen in on the edge of the pool, the coyotes had eaten the skin off its head, not being able to reach the rest of the deer. On the way up the mountain I spotted 4 or 5 deer running across the slope above me, but not running away from me, something else had them spooked. On the next level up above the deer, there were 2 sets of coyote tracks, shadowing the deer towards a stand of Hemlock where they had run. On the way down the deer were again running ahead of me, not away from me. I had a feeling there were 2 pairs of yellow eyes watching from the Hemlock grove . Kind of makes your hair stand up on the back of your neck. Back at the deer corpse, the water in the pool had melted a little, and on the deers back was a Bald Eagle feeding. To far for my little camera .I wasn't worried about getting wet on the way out, so I pulled the deer from the water to examine it, about 100#, healthly looking, it had been ham strung, probaly where it went down the first time, no broken bones, all the meat and hide gone from the head, and a hole above the liver where the eagle was feeding.
I'm sure the coyotes, eagles, crows ,and every other meat eating creature will have it picked clean by this weekend. Nothing goes to waste in nature.
Any way, just past the register this morning I noticed fresh deer tracks leaping off the bank,across the trail and onto the ice on the stream, along side were 2 sets of coyote tracks, in pursuit. Great wads of deer hair lay here and there where the coyotes had nearly grabbed it. The deers tracks were 15'-20' apart. I could see where the deer hit some solid ice and went down, the coyotes had it briefly, some blood and signs of slipping hooves and paws.A few feet away, the blood was every where, the ice broken where all three had gone through into a fairly deep hole. Hoof marks and claw marks all around the edges, one spot the deer must have gotten out only to fall back in. The deer was still floating,frozen in on the edge of the pool, the coyotes had eaten the skin off its head, not being able to reach the rest of the deer. On the way up the mountain I spotted 4 or 5 deer running across the slope above me, but not running away from me, something else had them spooked. On the next level up above the deer, there were 2 sets of coyote tracks, shadowing the deer towards a stand of Hemlock where they had run. On the way down the deer were again running ahead of me, not away from me. I had a feeling there were 2 pairs of yellow eyes watching from the Hemlock grove . Kind of makes your hair stand up on the back of your neck. Back at the deer corpse, the water in the pool had melted a little, and on the deers back was a Bald Eagle feeding. To far for my little camera .I wasn't worried about getting wet on the way out, so I pulled the deer from the water to examine it, about 100#, healthly looking, it had been ham strung, probaly where it went down the first time, no broken bones, all the meat and hide gone from the head, and a hole above the liver where the eagle was feeding.
I'm sure the coyotes, eagles, crows ,and every other meat eating creature will have it picked clean by this weekend. Nothing goes to waste in nature.