What's happening today?

[Derby42]

It hasn’t got here yet, we have had three inches this week and what ever bill drops tonight .

[Johnnysapples]

Do coyote tracks get this big? They made a ruckus last night and here’s one of the tracks. I’ve seen them a few times and they look bigger than German shepherds.

[IL847]

I saw coyote in the yard before, they are not very big or heavy. The paw print looks sunken deep into soil from a much heavier animal.

[Johnnysapples]

Googling foot prints this is more wolf than coyote.

[hoosierquilt]

I agree. We do have some very large coyotes here where I live, most likely interbred with dogs. Would be highly unlikely cross-bred with wolves as we don’t have wolves here in our area that I am aware of. But, in areas that have wolves, you can have a wolf-coyote hybrid that is pretty big. I agree with Annie, it seems that the prints were made by something heavier than a coyote, which weigh in at about 30-40 lbs. Even our big, weird looking coyotes, although large and tall, couldn’t weigh more than 40-45 lbs. My Aussies (which are really BIG Aussies) outweigh them by about double. Here are some good links for you:

http://fwp.mt.gov/fishAndWildlife/management/wolf/wolfCoyote.html

Wolf Identification - Western Wildlife Outreach

[Johnnysapples]

I think we have coy wolves. We had horses attacked not to long ago not far from here.

Here’s a video of the coy wolf.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6f9JPx61fg

[fruitnut]

Coyote can be pretty big. Chances of a wolf cross in wild would seem very slim to me. Wolf would be much more likely to kill any coyote in there range than cross breed. The one in the video looks like a coyote.

But I guess it might only take one cross breeding or even natural evolution to produce a bigger coyote. After all we’ve bred all sorts of dogs from 5 to 150 lbs in a few hundred yrs.

A skull doesn’t prove a natural cross. How about genetic evidence.

[hoosierquilt]

fruitnut, it is actually very common and there is an entire species now from this cross located in the northeastern USA and eastern Canada. We even believe we have some coywolves out here in the West, but just not in my area. This video is good to watch, and yes, it’s been ID’ed via DNA, not just anthropomorphically. And, we have a fair number of coyote-dog crosses out here in the West. Watch this video and you’ll see exactly what wolf species has been able to cross-bred with coyotes. John, thanks for sharing.

http://www.easterncoyoteresearch.com/

Coywolf

[warmwxrules]

Hoosier-

I’ll keep an eye out for any symptoms. I know a few people who have had it and got better after one round of antibiotics.

Took out an older Kristin sweet cherry. It was not that productive, bloomed too early (vs Lapins) and seemed to rot even worse then Lapins. So now all i have is Lapins for sweet cherries. I also have several sour cherries…but they may get the ax too (or i’ll dig them up and give them away) once my cjs start growing.

I think…i’d have to look…all my Alderman plums are gone…every one of them was hit by PC. I tossed them all in the garbage.

Does anyone know what to do, other then toss them in the garbage, with PC damaged fruit? I probably filled up a 5 gallon bucket of bad fruit…if not more. I think burying them might be a bad idea? Dump them in the river? … when i was younger i found a microwave in the Mississippi River…buried in mud… nice. People are so dumb.

[hoosierquilt]

Good idea to monitor for sx, Rob. Lyme disease is frequently a missed dx with doctors, since the sx mimic the flu and many other minor viral infections. Folks don’t always display the defining bullseye rash (erythema migrans), so, if you’re just feeling crummy, have joint aches, running a low grade fever, and ignore those symptoms because you don’t have this bullseye rash that would make you think, “yikes, I have Lyme disease!!”, folks tend to just brush off the sx as having some little viral thing. That’s when Lyme disease can get harder to get rid of. So, track your sx after you’ve found a tick on you, especially if you think it has been there over 24 hours.

[Johnnysapples]

This discripsion of http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2015/01/coyotes_attack_kill_horse_from.html
Here is a couple horses that were taken down by coyotes here where I live. I noticed the ears on this coyote are rounded more than usual and the legs are longer. This is more like what I’m seeing in my back yard. I as talking to a friend today and he said there was another horse taken down a couple weeks ago.

[Derby42]

Sounds like it may be time for some predator control . You can call them into range by squeeking to them.

[Johnnysapples]

I wish I had money to buy a camera . up there they go now. They calling in the back almost two hours before dark! I’m going to call and see if I can get a picture with my iPhone at the jungle end of the property.
I just found this and I think they are just trying to cover up so people don’t just start shooting them. There they go again! I want to get a picture be back soon.

Michigan DNR does not believe coyotes took down horse in Oxford Township

[Johnnysapples]

I herd them about a 1/4 mile away when I got out back. My calling is not that good I didn’t here anything back from trying to yep, but when I howled I got some bark bark , bark back. I want to get a call and camera. The mosquitoes were to bad to stand there. I had to come in. I’m just wearing shorts! A ruffy jr call would be great right now. Just so you know I have a mile of jungle before more houses so the barking back wasn’t dogs.

[Derby42]

I live trapped a possum under my peach tree last night. Everything likes peaches!

[Daemon2525]

I sprayed the Orchard again. I usually do the 2 spray thing but I was in the orchard and had
a Plum curculio walking down my arm.!

[warmwxrules]

I’ve noticed late PC hits on my pluots…maybe in the last few days. Amazing. After hitting all the apples (it would seem) and all the plums. I killed roughly ten of them myself over the last few weeks. I haven’t spray pesticide in weeks so i guess keep coverage until mid June might be necessary. I will add i never saw a PC hit on any peach.

[Brethil]

TODAY: I see my first fig cutting took! I know figs are easy-peasy to propagate, but its my first time with one so I’m very (probably disproportionately!) happy!

I rooted this little cutting as a last-ditch effort to keep a gift fig going; it was a forgotten plant in the back of the greenhouse and got terribly, concretely root bound before I was given it. When I tried to pot it up it had one tiny hair of feeder root, and that fell off leaving only big tan anchors. I root trimmed it, adding rooting hormone FWIW, put it in ultralight mix in dappled shade and cut all but one leaf. That leaf was drooping and yellowing, but is now green again and there is a bud swelling nearby…maybe it will make it. In which case I have 2 purple figs for pots.

Also today: got hit on the head by many mulberries while picking. Also a good thing.

[IL847]

wonderful

[MuddyMess_8a]

I was away for the weekend. We returned home Sunday evening. Today I am STILL catching up reading posts. That’s fine. Some evenings I run out of new posts to read before I’m ready to quit.

Other than that, it’s still sweltering here. It’s a few degrees cooler than what it was, but 100 degrees with 45% humidity doesn’t feel much different than 105. Rainstorms tease us almost every day. They give us the electrical activity and sound effects, but drop their burden elsewhere.

Someone was here watering while I was gone, and they did a lot, but didn’t get everything, or didn’t get it often enough. I’m spending mornings and evenings trying to revive some things and keep the rest going until we get some natural relief.

I’m less than optimally productive and get easily irritated when the heat and humidity are unrelenting. My house isn’t air conditioned, except the kitchen, which is mostly floor to ceiling windows and would be unbearable without it, and some bedrooms. One of these years replacing the central unit will make it to the top of the priority list.

/end of grumble