Sunday, November 26, 2006

Video clip

Well, someone asked to see the video that I shot a few days ago as proof that fox really will climb trees. I uploaded the video clip to a hosting site and will post the link here.

This file is over 6 mbs, so if you have a slow connection you may not want to bother with it due to the poor quality of the footage, unless you just have time on your hands. :)

Friday, November 17, 2006

Fox hunt

I took the dogs out for a run on the mountain behind my house this morning. It hasn’t been cold enough to freeze yet, and the red clay roads are pretty slick in spots, but I put the pickup in 4WD and roaded the dogs for some exercise; then stopped to make a calling stand.

I few minutes into the call, a gray fox came trotting in. Sadie saw the fox so I let her go. Instead of running the fox froze in position; almost to long. It had to see the dog barring down on it, but it seemed undecided what to do. Finally it swapped ends and got under way, but Sadie almost had it. The fox picked a tree and got his furry tail up it.

I got the video camera and tripod out of the truck and shot some footage, but it was disappointing. It was very foggy, and the fox was backlit against a bright sky, almost shooting into the sun. When I got home and plugged the camera into the TV it didn’t look to bad, but the streaming video clip I made to post here is terrible. I may try to clean it up a little bit some other day, but it is doubtful at best. You win some and you lose some. You take your chances when you hunt with a camera. Wildlife doesn’t always pose the way you would like.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

New sound.

Last night I uploaded 2 new sounds to an electronic caller. One is a distressed rabbit sound that a friend sent to me. The caller came with a rabbit cry installed, and I occasionally called in some kind of critter with it, but it was one of those sounds that made me grate my teeth to listen to it. The new sound at least sounds like a real rabbit!

The other sound is a distressed deer sound that I have on audio tape, that I have used successfully to call in both bear and cougar. I erased the rodent squeak that was installed in the caller, and which I seldom used, and replaced it with the deer sound.

This morning I loaded 2 dogs in the pickup and went across the river from my place. Parked the truck and walk an old road to an abandon apple orchard to set up a calling stand. About 2 minutes into the call with the new rabbit sound a gray fox came trotting in. I had a video camera mounted on a tripod, but the fox came in on my right and I couldn’t swing the camera around there. I had Bear tied on that side, but he was goofing off instead of paying attention to business. He didn’t see the fox. Dove saw it so I turned her loose. Of course by then the fox had seen the dogs and decided a change of location was in order! We have wet ground now and Dove took the track, but apparently didn’t tree the fox. I never heard her bark, and she was back in about 10 minutes.

I gathered up my junk and tried 2 more calling stands using the deer distress sounds, but aside from the usual birds I drew a blank. Judging from the way the clouds are building, I suspect it might be kind of wet around here by tomorrow morning. Turning colder too, which could put snow in the high country.