What makes these? Roughly 4 to 8 inches in diameter, couple inches tall. Random in the yard, usually with 10 feet of the tall weeds along the creek. No rhyme or reason to them. I can run em over, and they don't come back for days. Then there's a half dozen new ones in few days.
Haven't excavated one yet, but might do that this weekend.

Pocket gopher mounds

Can't say for that area but moles will push up soil from deep runs.

Advance scouts from China! Keep you chin to the wind and keep your powder dry...they're coming!

Moosetrot

Moles in my yard. I bucket all the fine dirt for trappin.

Almost positive them are mole diggings. Pocket gophers usually leave a "ring" where the tunnel opening is located. G.

That's what it looks like to me too.

Keith

Never seen or dealt with gophers but my understanding is a ring or horseshoe of soil to the sides with a central plug where the tunnel is.

I've put some mole traps over them, but never caught anything. More reason to dig one up and see what they look like.

Them's moles! gophers have 3-5 flatter larger mounds overlapping

Graboids

I'll admit i know nothing about moles. I thought they'd leave a noticeable trail between mounds. I see no evidence of that.

Moles do that with deep runs. The runs will be several inches to a foot or more deep. Setting on mounds is pointless, you have to set the runs. Use the mounds to "connect the dots" to locate the runs by probing.

There should be some good info in the ADC archives on trapping moles.

Moles. Caught 17 in my yd this summer, 16 out of one set where they always use the same old tunnel to enter the yard.

Crayfish

Yep, gophers are kind of a fan shaped mound, with the "ring" showing the tunnel.
Grandpa always said the mole mounds would show up in the fall as the moles dug down vertically to get lower to go after the worms etc. As winter gets closer when the ground freezes the worms move lower to stay below the frost??? In the summer is when you see more of the just below surface runs. Also heard the moles go down and then hibernate. Not sure what story is more accurate. G.

Definitely gradoids.
Good call.
I need to sign off now. Everything else I would discover on this site today would just seem trivial in comparison.

Imagine the sized conibear you would need

Mole

Nope! Those are made up from little mud balls, and are open topped and about 6" high with straight sides.