We’ve had a bunch of coyotes coming through our property lately. And I don’t mean just cutting through the corner of the pasture in the back 40. I mean they’ve been coming right through the middle of what passes for our back yard.
If it had just been a one-off thing, I wouldn’t have been too concerned. But this has been a regular occurrence. After about the fifth time I saw one trotting past the sliding glass door, I ran to get the coyote gun and dissuade that critter from coming so close. But by the time I got the gun and got back to where I could do something with it, that coyote was long gone.
Not long after that, my wife called me when I was on a trip out of state and told me she’d just seen four of them in the back yard. I obviously couldn’t do much about it then, and she said she’d had the same difficulty getting gunned up in time to take a shot.
So I decided to try to figure out if there’s a pattern those coyotes are following. I can’t just sit at the back door with the Stag-10 6.5mm Creedmoor all day for days on end waiting for them to show up again. But I thought maybe a trail camera would help me figure out their movements, and then if they’re showing up around a certain time, I could be ready and waiting for them.
As it turns out, I think my trail cam is actually a coyote repellant. I got one picture of a coyote with just about the first photo that trail cam ever took, but after that, I’ve gotten nothing. Well, that’s not true. I have a bunch of blurry pictures of meadowlarks, and one picture of something I can’t for the life of me identify. But no coyotes. Not a single one.
But that’s OK. If it’s keeping the coyotes away, I can live with that.
