September » 2009 » Wildlife Callers

Grey Fox Calling Video – Scouting and Success Go Hand in Hand

Posted September 30, 2009 By Mark Healy and has 2 comments.

A morning trip to scout for mountain lions turned into grey fox filming. This is a great video of how a fox can be manipulated with a variety of prey sounds and fox vocalizations.

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While in the field recently, I was working my way along a decomposed granite road looking for lion tracks and other lion sign, when I came across the tracks in the photo below:

Fox Tracks on Tire Marks

When I found these fox tracks I noticed right away that they were right on top of a tire track, indicating that they were at least more recent than that tire track. I took some time to evaluate the tire track the fox had walked on and found the tire track was on top of all the other tracks on the road, thus it was from the last vehicle to drive through. The area is fairly well travelled and my best guess was that the vehicle had passed through the prior evening.

Realizing that the fox tracks were just a few hours old, I set up my Wildlife Technologies electronic caller in a rocky canyon running adjacent to the roadway. (more…)

Categories: Predator Scouting, Predator calling, electronic callers, fox

Tags: Arizona predator hunting, electronic predator calling, electronic wildlife caller, fox, grey fox, predator hunting, Predator Scouting, wildlife callers

Scouting + Calling = Wildlife Photography Results

Posted September 29, 2009 By Marc Reindell and has 4 comments.

This is part 2 of Chad Messa’s guest post here at Wildlife Callers. Chad talks about the importance of scouting and using animal calls to get his photos. This information hopefully will help our readers in their own pursuit of that one great wildlife photo shot! This information also applies to hunting predators as well.

Photographing wildlife is very similar to hunting, although I sometimes have to get closer and be a lot more patient. This is because I have to get more than just one shot of a given animal.

I like to be anywhere from 20 to 30 yards away. This gives me the opportunity to get a good tight photograph of that animal for cover shots. When good action shots are needed I try to stay a little farther away.

tn_MESA1941 copy2 (2)

The single most important lesson I can give is this, learn about the species you are going to photograph, read all you can about that species before you even attempt to go out and photograph them.

Learn when they are breeding, what their diet consists of, and when they are most active.

(more…)

Categories: Predator Scouting, Predator calling, Wildlife Photography

Tags: electronic wildlife caller, Hunting, Predator calling, scouting, wildlife callers, wildlife images, Wildlife Photography

Predator Callers Gather at the Southwest Fur Harvesters’ Rendezvous

Posted September 28, 2009 By Mark Healy and has 2 comments.

The Southwest Fur Harvesters kicked off the 2009-2010 predator calling and fur trapping season with a weekend getaway in Payson, AZ.

One of this year’s event planners and well-known mountain lion caller, Steve Craig, invited me up to the cool pines of Payson for a weekend of wildlife calling seminars, good food, games for the kids, and campfire time with predator hunters from all over the Southwestern U.S. The event this year was well attended, with more than 100 predator hunters, spouses, and kids on hand.

Southwest Fur Harvesters

Throughout the day there were presentations from calling and trapping experts. There were presentations on calling bears, calling coyotes & coyote vocalizations, cage trapping. The event seminars focused on responsible fur harvesting and managing fur-bearers as a natural resource. (more…)

Categories: Predator calling

Tags: Arizona predator hunting, bobcat, calling mountain lion, coyote, fox, predator callers, Predator calling, predator hunter, Steve Craig, wildlife callers

Bobcat Calling – Scouting & Scat Identification (photos)

Posted September 26, 2009 By Mark Healy and has 4 comments.

Consistent bobcat calling success begins with field scouting and knowing what you are looking for.

After my last post on fox habitat and sign (see it here: http://tinyurl.com/ydxwgoa ), I was asked what to look for when pursuing bobcats and if Wildlife Callers would make a post on the subject (who would have thought that predator poo was so popular??). I told the gentleman we would oblige as quickly as possible. We hope all of our readers find this post helpful.

This post focuses on bobcat and cougar scat identification and we’ll make another post on terrain types in a later post.

Scott Francom - AKA Hyperwrx on the Internet

Veteran Arizona predator caller and friend Scott Francom of Gilbert, AZ and I made a trip to the field to collect some photos and data. The photos that we collected were from the desert areas around Maricopa, Arizona, but the information is applicable anywhere you hunt bobcats. The location we scouted was new to both of us, but using our knowledge of bobcat behavior we quickly located what we were looking for.

NOTE: The sign that we found is applicable to any location – I have seen bobcat sign just like I’m posting here all over Arizona, British Columbia Canada, Sonora Mexico, Missouri, and many other places. You don’t need to be in the AZ desert to scout for bobcats.

Below you’ll find several photos of what we found on our scouting trip. (more…)

Categories: Predator Scouting, bobcat, mountain lion

Tags: Arizona predator hunting, bobcat, bobcat hunting, bobcat scouting, predator hunting, Predator Scouting, scouting, wildlife callers

Wildlife Photography- Tips from a professional

Posted September 21, 2009 By Marc Reindell and has 2 comments.

Wildlife Callers would like to introduce you to Chad Messa of Mesa Sky Wildlife Phtography. We are pleased to have Chad contribute to our blog and hope you enjoy the information he can provide. Chad is a professional photographer based in the SouthEast U.S. This will be the first of a two part post as Chad has a lot of info to share with us. Please look for the second part in the next day or two.

Chad uses hand calls and would like to expand his calling by using an electronic wildlife caller in the near future. Chad is the second wildlife photographer that has agreed to contribute to our blog on a periodic basis, we are happy to share his story and his photographs with our readers.

Mesa Sky Wildlife Photography

My name is Chad Messa, I am the owner/operator of Mesa Sky Wildlife Photography and we are located in south Mississippi and Louisiana.

I got started in wildlife photography when I was about 16 years old. My older sister gave me a Yashica film camera and even though I had no idea what I was doing, I took it into the woods every chance I had. As years went by I kept shooting and always kept that camera with me in my truck. Back then I was shooting stuff like birds, alligators and turtles, just local Louisiana wildlife.

The photograph I took that made me realize I could make a living at this was of a captive jaguar. I learned that if I tried hard enough and read as much as possible about photography, I could make this a career.