Well, I have been reading and learning and got a bait site up and running. Have had fox and racoons come to the bait, as revealed by tracks in the snow. Maybe coyote too. Photos are below and I would welcome some help ID'ing what I'm seeing.
However, learned something Saturday, while finishing up the stairway to the deer tower from which my son and I will hunt over the bait site.
What I learned is don't let your dogs run loose near your bait pile, they will eat all of the scattered scraps while you aren't watching them!!!
We have found three winter killed sika deer at the club where my bait site is. One died is it's bed in some sage (what we call tall feather grass) on a berm adjacent to the gravel road running across most of the arable land. A youngster died on an iced over drainage ditch. Tracks reveal that it's mother tried to get it up and moving, obviously without success. The third was in the salt marsh.
We started supplemental feeding for the deer and whatever else, using our left over corn and duck pellets.
[EDIT: Sika deer are relatives of elk. Maryland Sika deer are the smallest sub species or strain of Sika deer with a big, trophy stag dressing about 100-110lbs and a really big hind dressing maybe 75lbs. Maryland's sika came from Yakushima Island in Japan about a century ago. Originally they were contained to a couple of islands in the Chesapeake Bay and on the coast but when the Chesapeake Bay froze over some walked to the mainland. They love marsh and wet areas and they are dominant over whitetails. At my club in Dorchester County we have almost exclusively sika deer and whitetail sightings are few and far between. Here's a link with some more info:
http://sikastag.com/sika-deer.htm ]
The sika that died in it's bed was mostly consumed in one day, and the little one was placed in the same spot and was also mostly gone in a day.
Q: Do vulture tracks look like turkey tracks?
Please help me ID these tracks, they appear to be too large for fox, and they aren't dog tracks since no dogs were on the property between the time it snowed and the time the photo was taken:
Also, can anyone help ID this scat? It isn't very similar in size and shape to sika deer and seems big for our raccoon and fox:
Thanks for your help,
JPK