Its been a while since I have updated this post as December has been a busy month with having a broken water line to the house, travelling, Christmas etc. That being said, we have been out and doing some hunting, although the bitter cold that has hit us (and most of the central / western portions of the country) has slowed us down.
We continue to see all kinds of animals on the hydro line even though there is an active forest harvesting operation going on adjacent to where we hunt. Twice now I have watched animals (1 wolf and 1 coyote) run across the line and into the side where they are working. The foreman says they see animals all the time and has seen as many as 8 sets of eyes looking at him when he is working at night. They are not concerned that we are hunting next to the operations and are more concerned about the critters around them (we made an effort to introduce ourselves when they started and explained what we are doing and where / how we hunt). We now have diamond drillers working on the hydro line further down from where we hunt and after expressing some initial concerns, they are ok with us as well.
Unfortunately, we are starting to see signs of mange in the wolves. My neighbor (a retired wildlife biologist) says this is a classic sign of overpopulation. This guy is in tough shape and seeing as it went below -40C this am, I wonder if he survived.
On December 19, hunting partner Troy and I went out to the hydro line. It was unseasonably mild (+2C). He hasn’t shot a wolf / coyote yet and I am only hunting fox, so as we approached the line, I told him to check out the side where Murray has his bait. Troy snuck up and looked but nothing was there. I walked up and was chatting with him, and then I turned to cross the road and go up on the ridge we hunt from. Standing where we usually hunt was a blond wolf looking at us. I called to Troy and it disappeared over the crest. He had seen it and booted it up the hill. When he got to the crest (with me following, I wasn’t moving as fast) it was standing still, broadside to him at 100 yards. Troy got a shot off but shot just under and in front of the wolf. It jumped and loped into the treeline. Troy had chambered a second round but didn’t get a shot. The wolf didn’t seem concerned about the shot, and listening to the banging and crashing of the forest operation, I am pretty sure they have become acclimatized to loud noises. This is the wolf the following day at my bait site (notice it is looking at a coyote at the edge of the treeline):
After an hour or so, we watched a darker wolf cross the line about 400 yards down and into the side where they were cutting. He is a nice looking animal and apparently associates with the blond wolf as well:
We haven’t spent any time up at our blind at the beaver flood as there are so many animals at the hydro line (and we weren’t sure how the cutting operations would affect the animals). So My72Jeep suggested we take a run up there on Boxing Day (after it warmed up from -30C). There is a large black wolf with a white chest patch which has eluded us for 4 years (our fault as described in earlier posts). Numerous folks have seen the wolf this summer as it is accustomed to hunting and traveling along the highway. We haven’t set any bait out up there yet so we thought we would do a quick run to check it out.
Now this site is right off the Trans-Canada highway. On Christmas day, a transport flipped on the highway and when we got up to the blind location, it turns out that it flipped right there. The reefer full of boxed whatever is still in the ditch and about 125 yards from where our blind overlooks the beaver flood where we hunt on the other side of the treeline. We drove by the wreck and up to a bush road that we also hunt to turn around. There were three very fresh wolf tracks coming out of the road and crossing the highway. We turned around and drove back towards the blind. We were going quite slow and were almost stopped on the road across from the blind. I looked in my side view mirror and there was the big black wolf standing on the yellow center line. We had literally driven by it and it walked out behind us.
M72J bailed out with his rifle and ran across the highway and into the ditch. The wolf was standing there till a transport came around the curve and wreck and it trotted across the road and headed for the treeline on the same side as M72J. He had it in his sights but as it was an unsafe shot he didn’t pull the trigger. I drove away and did a u turn and came back and parked in front of the wreck. M72J was now in the trees against the creek trying to call the wolf with his screaming rabbit call he got for Christmas. After 15 or so minutes, he walked back up on the highway and I drove up and picked him up.
We drove back to the bush road, turned around and headed back. As we got to the creek system (it parallels the highway and runs at least a kilometer in length), I slowed down and we were checking the creek out to see if the wolf had circled back. We were about ½ way to the blind and I looked up and a second wolf walked out of the trees in front of us and stood in our lane about 300 yards up. It was black as well but not nearly as big. I drove up a bit closer to where there were no trees against the creek so M72J could bail out and get down to get a shot as it crossed the creek. He got down there and saw it on the creek before it disappeared into the alders and trees. Once again, he tried to call it out with his hand call but nothing showed.
So if it ever warms up here
I am going to get some bait up there and start hunting there – after January 1!
Regards and stay close to the wood stove.
