When Mark and Adam Grinstead invited Carl and I to a recent duck hunt, we jumped at the opportunity to go.  The Grinsteads have hunted ducks for many years and are happy to share their knowledge with others.  I’ve never called anything other than predators, so I was looking forward to seeing ducks respond to the call and trying to film the action.

Earlier in the week, Mark and Adam each took their limit of ducks.  They spent two hours breaking a large hole in the ice so they could place decoys on open water.  Once the decoys were floating on the water, they waited patiently for the sun to come up.

Here is Mark with the harvested ducks.

Mark Grinstead with ducks -- 2011-11-21

Here is Adam with the harvested ducks.

Adam Grinstead with ducks -- 2011-11-21

Zeus is Adam’s duck dog.  He’s eight months old and retrieving very well for his young age.  With maturity, experience and additional training he’s going to be a fantastic duck retriever.

Carl and I met the Grinsteads at the hunting area at 6 a.m. on Black Friday (no Christmas shopping for us!).  We walked to the blind and got situated.  Due to warm weather, the pond wasn’t frozen and Adam had an easy time dispersing 30 decoys.

Here are the video highlights from our hunt.

Thanks for reading.

Regards and good calling,

Mike Healy

My son, Carl, is thirteen and we enjoy coyote calling as often as we are able to make time to get into the field.

Carl didn’t have school on Friday so I took the day off and we went coyote calling.  The window of opportunity was excellent as it was a weekday and Idaho’s rifle season for deer hadn’t opened yet.

In the early afternoon we were calling on a small parcel of state land surrounded by private property and had a very energizing experience with several nearby coyotes.

Our truck was well concealed behind a small hill with a headwind in our favor.  Seated on a hillside with adequate cover and a good view, I placed my Wildlife Technologies electronic caller downhill about 30 paces in front of us.  Instead of hiding the caller in a bush, I placed it in the bottom of a waist-deep sinkhole.

I started the stand with two loud female coyote howls and then paused to listen for a response.  Within 30 seconds a couple of coyotes responded by howling back at us.  They were to our left and just beyond a low hill.  I waited another 30 seconds and played a few red tail hawk screams.  The coyotes to our left responded again.  I then paused for a few seconds of silence to let everything soak in and another coyote started howling directly in front of us.

Scanning the land directly in front of us, I couldn’t see the coyote that was howling.  Carl was seated to my right and I didn’t want to miss any movement on our left flank made by the coyotes that were howling over there.  I shifted my focus to the left and let Carl sort out what was likely unfolding in front of us.

Manipulating the remote control below the level of the sage brush to avoid detection, I lowered the volume and played a squeaky mouse vole distress sound.  The coyotes to the left continued to howl and were obviously upset by the intrusion that my original howl represented.  After a minute of the mouse vole, I silenced the caller.  The coyotes to our left were still howling sporadically.

Struggling to pick out any movement at all, I finally spotted a coyote running from center stage to our left at 500 yards out.  Carl then clicked his safety off.  I figured there was something else going on that I couldn’t see so I went back to watching our left flank.

As we sat motionless with Carl’s safety off, I ran through the following sound sequence two or three times:

1. red tail hawk screams
2. pause
3. crows mobbing a meat pile
4. pause
5. coyote pup distress
6. pause

Amazingly, the coyotes to our left continued to howl during the above sequence.

I then reverted to the mouse vole distress sound on low volume to wait it out and see what was going to happen.  We were in the range of 10 to 12 minutes into the stand when suddenly… BANG!  I shifted my eyes back to the center just in time to see a coyote fall to the ground.  Carl had been monitoring its approach and fired when it stopped at 121 yards from where we were sitting.  He first spotted the coyote at 450 yards and observed its deliberately slow advance for many minutes before taking the shot.

Idaho Coyote, October 2011

Having the caller in the sink hole probably helped us out on this stand.  Coyotes have that amazing ability to pinpoint the precise location on the surface of the earth where a sound is coming from.  In this case, I suspect the coyote felt compelled to get close enough to see into the bottom of the sink hole to conclusively determine the source of the sound.

Regards and thanks for reading,

Mike Healy

The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, is helping to mitigate the loss of habitat in this area by contributing $150,000.00 to help with restorative measures within the burn area. The RMEF does a lot of good, weather working to preserve land for Elk habitat, or fighting to keep Wolf predation of Elk to a minimum.

To read the full story of the RMEF’s effort to help out Arizona’s Elk affected by this devastating fire, Click Here. I am a proud member of the RMEF and glad to see that the members dues are put to good use to benefit Elk and their habitat. Supporting organizations like RMEF benefit all hunters and outdoor enthusiasts, including those of us that enjoy predator calling.

I encourage you to become a member of the RMEF or other like organizations that work to preserve our lands that we enjoy to hunt, fish and other outdoor activities.

As always, we appreciate our readers comments.

All the best,

Marc Reindell

marc@wildlifecallers.com

There is some controversy over these proposed resolutions as some of the so-called “wildlife advocate” groups have not signed off on the proposed deal. This still leaves the door open for future litigation from these groups that could still prove troublesome for the long term.

Wolf - Courtesy of the US Fish & Wildlife Service/Tracy Brooks

Two separate articles on this issue are here for you to read, the first is from the Idaho Statesman, sent to us by Mike Healy, one of our readers. This article deals with a plan that Montana and Idaho seemingly have come to an agreement, along with many of the “wildlife advocate” groups. This action was prompted by the fact that the Federal Govt. was apparently on the verge of de-listing the wolf nationwide. This would have been a big blow to the “wildlife advocate” groups, a crushing defeat really. Instead, this still leaves them wiggle room to press for keeping wolves listed as endangered in states where wolves are beginning to gain a foothold such as Oregon and Washington.

The second article is from the Billings Gazette. This article talks of a meeting that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar had with Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead regarding Wyoming’s plan to manage wolf populations within the state borders.  Wyoming has long listed the wolf as a predator, not a big game species. This has meant that Wyoming residents had the ability to “shoot on sight” any wolf, with the exception of those populating the northwest corner of the state, specifically in and around Yellowstone National Park.

We would like to see this issue come to resolution.  States manage wildlife populations within their borders much more efficiently than the Feds.  By this controversy continuing to go on, the states cannot manage populations properly in large part due to the fact that one apex predator is off limits, thus any balance that they try to establish is nullified.

Your comments on this issue are always welcome, we encourage our readers that live in the affected states to contact their legislators and make your voice heard. We also encourage readers that live in other areas that have interest in this issue to do so as well.

Subscribing is free! You can do so right here:

Good hunting!

Marc Reindell

info@wildlifecallers.com

I have written other blog posts HERE , HERE, and HERE and posted scouting photos on our Wildlife Callers’ Facebook Page that talk about terrain considerations when scouting and calling for mountain lions.  This video captures nicely the “lay-up” concept that we talk about.  As you watch the video and the camera pans right you will see (at about 27 seconds) the lion has chosen a daytime hideout just below a saddle located on the ridge line above the rock/brush pile it pops out of. 

Without seeing the area in person and being able to walk the ridges around the brushed up rock pile the cat jumped out of, we can only make an educated guess that the lion is using the ridge/saddle as part of it’s travel route.  Based on past experience with travel paths and scouting for lay-up areas to call into, it stands to reason that ridge line is at least one of the travel routes in the area. 

It is also highly likely that this or another lion will use this lay-up again in the future.  Having a location like this jotted down in a calling journal will provide a spot to call into every single time you’re in the area.  Other than calling the area and getting a mountain lion to respond, there is no reliable way to know exactly when the cat will be back.  Based on the radio collar data that we’ve looked at and the trail camera evidence that we’ve collected, the day or night and actual time the lion will show back up can’t be accurately predicted.  However, paths that they use for travelling get used again and again. 

Catching the lion the next time it’s in this lay-up is a game of chance, but persistence pays.  If you have 20 locations like this identified with scat, tracks, other sign, and perhaps some trail camera photos and you consistently call into  them, eventually you’ll be in the right place at the right time and you’ll get your big cat to come in.  We’re certain it’s a whole lot more reliable than random calling into areas that simply “look like good cat country” but have no physical evidence to go with the good looks. 

Thanks again for reading.  Comments and questions are always welcome at the bottom of this page. 

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Good luck this season,

Mark Healy

mark@wildlifecallers.com

480-882-1210