Nice Marten Marten!

Well, it looks like the bunnies crashed here. Areas that were covered with tracks in early fall are nearly devoid of them now and the trees aren't being gnawed on at all. I walked several miles today in good bunny habitat and didn't jump a hare. Seem to be plenty of dead deer and voles around so perhaps the fox numbers will be ok next year. Have you guys crashed yet in your neck of the woods?

No bunnies out here but I did see a few deer today running my line. All but one looked very gaunt, you could see their ribs and they didn't want to leave the beach. They are going downhill fast, probably going to see a bunch of dead ones soon. Sucks.

Yep, I've been seeing quite a few dead ones and a lot of the bucks look real bad. We warmed up a bit and that seems to be helping. I have been told that the deer on the west side are doing much better though so it may not be a massive island wide die off as feared. Judging by the number of deer at the start of the winter compared to what we have now it looks like it could be approaching 25 to 30% mortality locally with another 25% or so looking pretty run down...

I have been gettng a few marten sets out in our marginal habitat and picked up this nice XXL today

c note on the seat!

My son in law is new to trapping and walked my snare lines with me earlier in the season. He finally got up the gumption to ask me to help him make some sets and catch some fur. Of course I said "You Betcha!". We went to a spot that I did well in last year but not good this year. I knew there were some foxes in there but the weather kicked my butt and I finally had to pull out before I caught anything. I showed him some likely spots and made a few sets and then turned him loose (with a little coaching). Again the weather conspired against us and he didn't get anything the first few checks. Then yesterday as he was headed out of the area he spotted a nice red sitting on a hillside and made a terrific shot on it with his .22 Maggie. Today we went back to pull the sets and he had his first official snared fox in a set he made. He is stoked and I have a trapping buddy!

First skinning job..


Rigging a drag...


Winter kill... This was covered with tracks when we found it but the foxes never came back to it...


First snared fox, big ol' grin...


Cloud 9...

Woo hoo!

Awesome!! That one he is skinning looks like an absolute pig. I found 2 dead deer on the beach checking traps this weekend, a young one and a larger buck. Both were washed up on the beach and had been there for a little while. We are getting dumped on right now, so much for my otter sets until I can get back out to dig them out. Gotta love trapping up here! Always something.

We caught a break for the last few days and the snow pack is slowly diminishing. The second fox was as big but got soaked. He had that one on a drag and it traveled about 40 yards and tried to jump a creek. He came up short...

If there is one thing I truly dislike it is when fox, yotes or wolves get soaked! They are a Pain to dry if you don't have a good heat source and skinning them wet is no fun at all. We have had a lot of wet snow this year and I have had so many fox get soaked bringing them home even when in plastic bags in side feed bag and then in action packers of course the action packers bottoms are pretty well worn

Yes they are a pain! We ended up running it through the washing machine (delicate, cold) after skinning and then towel drying as best we could. The spin cycle helped a little.

Snow Chicken...It's what's for dinner.. tomorrow....

Spotted a couple of dozen ptarmigan while coming back from a 'scouting' excursion. They screwed up and let me get too close...over and over and over...lol!

The birds have been thick here this year people are getting tired of eating them.

Those are the first ones of the season for me. The deeper than usual snow pack seems to have pushed them a lot lower this year. We jumped some last week down almost at sea level, which is rare here. I made ptarmigan stew for supper tonight and it was pretty dang good!

those are tasty birds I put a sack full away in the fall when they are in the berries and ususly eat them twice a week all winter long if I can.

I ran my line yesterday and picked up another with white on the paws that makess four I caught like that this season

Nice pile!

Nice pile of Kitty's! And Ptarmie's!

Nice pile Jeff.

I've only killed fall ptarmies once and if I could, I'd get them all. They are the BEST!

Good looking cats Yukonjeff.

Happened to catch one of my brides welfare cases in a full yawn. Are good looking teeth like that a sign of young age?