Hot Dog Dead Cow Cam Action!

Early Coyote.

Going after the lower backstrap.

Back to the backstrap.

Four at once.

Four coyotes- part of a pack on cam at once. They must be getting more used to the camera flash. Do they prefer the meat at this stage or are they just now rotating into the area? Had a little coyote the first day, but this is the first major visitation by a pack.

NRA Regional shooting

Nice day at the range. Across-the-course highpower rifle tests several different skills. Offand at 200, sitting and prone rapids, long-range at 600. I shot pretty well and won several stages but didn't get into the medals. Crossfired at 600 and ruined a nice score losing ten points with an X next target over. 771. Won the rapid fire aggregate with a 399. LEG match with service rifles tomorrow, just for fun.
Keith Stephens won the Regional Gold Medal with a 790. Range record score.

Bayou Rifles NRA Regional Match

I'm in Pearland or Manvel or Alvin or somewhere in the trackless wastes South of Houston. It's flat and ugly. So flat it makes Smith County look like the Alps and so ugly that even the mesquite trees look ornamental. They do have a rather nice rifle range down here. Very well organized and called match. Team Blackfork was second by quite a bit. 65 points behind first place. 8 teams. Didn't shoot well as a team though I did get the Match Rifle rolling for a nice 488X16. Good coaching in tricky light switching winds from Rick Crawford at 600 yards. That was worth quite a bit. Crawford would call the wind correction and then call a favor as it shifted slightly: 9:00 X....9:00 X.....9:00 Ten. I couldn't shoot the favors much but shot a 198 out of 200. Best score in quite a while.
Tomorrow morning the NRA Regional 80 shot match kicks off. It will be a long day. Shooting the same rifle on the same range in about the same wind with more experience. Hope it shows.

Update: Like everywhere else in Texas, they have a big hog problem in the brush South of Houston.

Dead Cow Cam: Shots of the day.

Voguing.

Flash-lit photo showing a little color.

Watching long nose.

Wonder if I could take a length of rope and flip this thing?

Dead Cow Cam: Coyote Fever!

All the vultures are launching.

All birds crouched to launch.

Coyote has just skidded to a halt.

Self-selected as the slowest and dumbest Black Vulture.

Coyotes run in and flush the vultures off the carcass over and over. I don't see them go after a specific one, just bluffing them off.

Hump still intact. Tough hide. They have reached into the carcass and cleaned out everything they can get to. Picking away. It's about 2/5ths gone.

Dead Cow Cam

Stripped out the tenderloin.

Yank it!

Possum circling the carcass at night.

A little foot action. Snow on the dead.

Bird rotation during the snowstorm.

The hump hasn't been touched. Tempted to split it open. Everythwere I gave them access they have cleared out. They reached several inches inside the ribs along the backbone and ate everything out.

Coyote and Possum

Big male getting into a meal.

Beef loin. Aged.

Coyote shows up and he sits down.

Stays down. Playing dead I think.

I think the possum was playing dead until the coyote left. He was very active, (looks like a large male) then just laid down in a lump. Dark last night and I bet the coyote couldn't find him by smell...plus easier things to eat.

Everywhere I sliced the hide with a knife, they have opened up and cleaned out. Hump still untouched. They are just peeling back the hide and getting to the lower loin along the backbone.

Carcass getting bleached out, frozen, rank. Pretty awful though still as long as you are upwind it's OK for the olfactory.

New and improved cam angle!

Owl Cam

More coolness. You want to play farmtown or watch the owlcam? What is the internet really for? To trap you into a virtual fake reality or increase your information gathering about the world? Take your time. It's kind of a trick question.

Love Barn Owls. They are very tolerant of people, nesting in attics, steeples, barns. Tyto Alba. Common to East Texas along with Screech Owls, Barred Owls, Great Horned Owls.

Dead Cow Cam action.

Coyotes running in, Black Vultures getting ready to launch.

These guys weren't here 10 seconds later when the flash went off again. They must owe a photographer money or something.

I have a black target paster over the ready light, so in the daytime they don't see the cam at all. Pretty wolfy looking coyote. They usually just flash past the deercam and I get the butt of the last one. This is more coyote data than I have ever seen on my cams.

King of the world!

Everyone got the differences between Turkey Vultures and Black Vultures down? You're welcome.

Really working the (aged) beef loin on the back side.

After these shots I moved the cam again. They ate a whole beef loin all the way down the backbone today along where I had sliced the hide open. Other side still there. I figured it was the coyotes pigging...or dogging out, but looking at the files off the cam I think it was mostly the birds.

No hawk today at all. Go figure. Maybe he has fish on Fridays. No possum at night. Coyotes came in but left at the first cam flash.

Welcome to folks linked over from View From the Porch. You can't get good Dead Cow Cam action anywhere but here!

Friday: weather coming.

Even reloads are getting dear, but I generated the brass with my Les Baer today. Not bad shooting at 25 and 50 yards. Ranier 230 FMJs over 4.5 Titegroup.

Seems to shoot the same group with any load of my 600 yard ammo. Shot some 69s offhand at 200 yards. Not friends yet.

Hard-working pistols out of the box for a bit.

Last day of good weather they say. They being they, I took them at they word and went to the range to shoot a little pistol and standing offhand with my match rifle. If this was the last good weather for a bit, it was certainly worth it. Kyle and I shot his Glock 21 at a full-sized silhouette at 100 yards last weekend. 6 of 7 on hits. This Les Baer would shoot a smallish group at 100, if you could hold it and watch the sights.

Maximum Action on the Dead Cow Cam

Big resident Redtail.

Easier than catching mice.

Double possums.

Double Dogs.

Keeping an eye on the vultures.

Coyotes and Vultures not happy together.

Nose-deep.

Very wary.

Keeping eyes out.

Double possums at night and a pair of Coyotes in the daylight. A Hawk. The Vulture crew. Must have spooked the Coyotes when I came in to swap cam cards. Missed them by about two minutes.

I don't think the two Coyotes include the little female that came in the first couple of days. The possums seem to be regulars. The Hawks are residents. I sliced open the hide a little down the back. That's what the Coyote is working on the most.

As much as the Coyotes look up at the vultures, you would think they drop rocks on their heads.

Walked all over the bottom looking for sheds. One little non-moccasine snake in the creek and an old chewed up scapula.

Update: Welcome to Tamathiminia's intelligent and nuanced readers from the Porch! They will love this stinking carcass action for sure!

DEAD COW CAM.

Possum poking around, but never for more than a moment.

Day shift. Basically, birds are eating this thing.

Flaptime.

More of the same. Black Vultures early. Turkey Vultures mix in later. Possum at night. No Coyotes. No crows. Hawks have taken a day off. Colder temp shut the flies off like a switch. The vultures have exploited the early cuts I made in the hide and are reaching several inches inside for meat. Those naked skin heads are coming in handy. I sliced the hide open down the back. Was going to peel it back but the carcass started hissing- outgassing. I didn't want a whiff of that so I left.

Fresh deer tracks in the area. Immediate area around the dead cow stamped flat by buzzards.

Antlers shedding.

Young Bucks.

Fresh empty sockets, right on time.

They will all be shed this week.

Wonder if he misses them?

Bigfoot panic.

Showing up with empty sockets. I need to get across the creek and really look hard. Been zigging and zagging on the cam runs. Going to start leafing out at the low levels soon. Right now, perfect conditions. Love to find a set of sheds, even from the little guys.

Great Blue Herons nesting up. Clacking bills and screetching at each other. Sound like dinosaurs. Pileated woodpeakers were visible today. Saw two pretty close. Crab Apples just poking up. I moved my second rock closer to the creek crossing.