no bunnies

[hoochiepapa]

The wind was howling.

Old narrow gage rr grade.

elk stopped for a snack
I didn't see anything, but what guy doesn't like a day in the mountains?

 

[123.DieselBenz]

Sure beats going to work!

With the wind up, most everything was hunkered down, but you!

 

[BrownBear]

Man, that's great country! Any excuse to be out there, even a camera, is good enough for me.

Maybe I oughta start pulling the camera out of my pocket when the hunting is slow. Our bunny turf is really different than yours!

I can't tell from the first pic whether the brown spots are brush or just blown clear of snow. In either case, I'd be looking for our local snowshoes right around the edges of those spots.

 

[hoochiepapa]

This camera was bought for my wife, she didn't like carrying our big one around. I'm glad I took it.
Post pics, brown bear, I want to see what your country looks like.
And thanks for the advice. Those are areas of melted or blown off snow. It's supposed to be in the 50's next week, and I'm going back. It's worth it to drive an hour.

 

[rkmeyer]

Those are some purrrdy pictures! :thumbsup: Thanks for sharin.
Dusty :wink:

 

[BrownBear]

Post pics, brown bear, I want to see what your country looks like.

Okay, you asked for it. I had to drive the hour into town today, and stopped at some favorite spots for pics along the way.

This is an overview of one of my principal areas. The place where the brush pretty much peters out into solid snow is about 1300ft elevation. We cover it all for deer, but the snowshoes are mostly from sea level to 500 feet or so. The diversity of habitat in this makes it so great for hares, with most found along the edges between types. Just for interest sake, there's a salmon river running right down through that valley, and during fishing season I became "acquainted" with 7 different bears that use it. By the tracks I'd say there were several more that I never met. They concentrate on the river for the salmon, but spread out the rest of the year. There are 8 salmon rivers and streams within a half hour of our house. That adds up to a lot of salmon, and a whole lot of bears stumbling around in the brush with you. Remember that as you gander through the rest of the pictures! :rotf:

This is ideal bunny habitat, but that grass is waist high, though it's clearer under the alders. They're thick enough it takes a fair bit of gymnastics to move through, especially quietly, whether for deer or rabbits.

The country can be real steep too, often requiring two hands to climb and a well padded butt to come down! BTW- That's a well-used bear trail snaking down the hill toward you!

This is willow rather than alder. It's lower and more open, and surprisingly holds rabbits well. Anywhere grass drapes over the limbs, it creates lairs they can hide in. Lots of them!

This is bunny heaven here. They move up and down the hills depending on weather and wet, but when conditions are right you find them in these bottoms, especially where the spruce are low and the grass around the edges helps them disappear.

 

[BillinOregon]

Awesome photos of Alaska and Colorado. Thanks fellas.

 

[hawk]

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

 

[hoochiepapa]

Thanks, brown bear! I think some of that looks a lot like CO. At least the hills. Looks like fun. What do the snowshoes eat? Here it's spruce during the winter and the forbs in the warm seasons.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Aren't you forgetting about predators like Golden Eagles, and Hawks in that open country? That is NO place for a rabbit to live if he expects to have a long life.

They don't eat just any grass. Many grasses have saw tooth edges on them, and cut the rabbits mouths, and stomachs. So, they won't eat them. Don't treat all grasses as the same. Pick a blade off, and feel its edges. Look for new growth- not that dead, tall, old growth in the pictures. New growth will be LIGHT green- not dark green. New growth will have lots of sugars in the blades, and the rabbits eat them because of the sugar. The last thing a rabbit will eat is old dead grass, where all the chlorophyl has drained out of the blades. Rabbits will start eating the bark on soft wood trees, to get into the cambium layers under the bark for food, when fresh grasses are gone for the season.

If you are not finding rabbit pellets( scat) all over the place, you don't have rabbits living there.

If you see hawks, or eagles soaring overhead at noon, they are looking for marmots( in the rocks), or rabbits, and rodents( mice, ground squirrels.) Let other predators help you find a place to hunt.

 

[123.DieselBenz]

We don't get much green grass here of any shade . . . this where I hunt . . . both Cottontails & Blacktail Jack Rabbits (really a hare!)

My buddy!

We do get green for about 6 weeks . . .

We have hawks, but we really have to watch for the Rattlesnakes while it is warm out!

They like bunnies too!

And yes, I eat snakes too!

Fried!

The Doves prefer the mesquite trees . . . really bushes, as most are less than 10' tall . . .

 

[BrownBear]

Man, thanks for posting those!

Talk about old home week. I grew up a little east of you in the 1950's and learned to hunt in virtually identical terrain. Most folks can't imagine just how much game lives there. Your pics are pure soul food for this old hunter's soul! :bow:

 

[123.DieselBenz]

Man, thanks for posting those!

Talk about old home week. I grew up a little east of you in the 1950's and learned to hunt in virtually identical terrain. Most folks can't imagine just how much game lives there. Your pics are pure soul food for this old hunter's soul! :bow:

Your Welcome! Nice to see where folks hunt . . .

Did you eat snake? (Not much meat on these!)

 

[BrownBear]

Absolutely, and like you, mostly fried with corn meal! There's not much meat, but it's sure sweet.

Last time I was down that way a cousin lightly salted some, sprayed a little olive oil on it, then hung it in his Little Chief smoker for about 4 hours with mesquite. That has to be one of the best tastes that's ever crossed my lips!

 

[123.DieselBenz]

Yup, cornmeal, salt, blackpepper . . .

Here is another picture with three big muley bucks:

The biggest is on the left . . . other two on the right of the tree are together . . . yeah sometimes the mesquite actually get that big, actually bigger if they get water!

 

[BrownBear]

Dandy bucks, and typical views! They sure stand out compared to Coues, don't they!

And mesquites.... Jeez. We had a thick caliche' layer almost everywhere. Those that had a century or so to poke through it and find water grew huge, while those waiting around for their roots to penetrate were scrub.

Ah, the good old days.... Picture a skinny sunburned kid bareback on a sorry horse, wandering this stuff with a 22 single shot slung across his back on a pigging string! Whooeee, do I feel old now!

 

[BillinOregon]

Diesel: Great photos. You surely do have some mighty big buzztails down there. I remember seeing one that seemed to stretch all the way across a two-lane blacktop at night near Wickenburg many years ago. Glad to hear there is still some hunting country left in Arizona. My granddad ranched in the Tonto Basin about 1908-1927.

 

[ny griz]

:thumbsup: Great pics guys. :applause: Just the way i remember Co when i hunted there.Griz

 

[hawk]

great posts-pics thank you.

 

[123.DieselBenz]

The muleys were only 45-50 yards away, but it was spring . . . and I was hunting rabbit with a 12ga & #4 shot . . .