CouesWhitetail

Yeah, I thought that buck pose was pretty neat. I had put the cam on a mini tripod in a bunch of rocks on a steep slope so that I could try and get pics of the raptor that was making all kinds of whitewash under that large dead juniper branch. I figured it was a great horned owl and I thought it would be cool to try and get one on trail cam. I didn't realize that the deer and elk have a little path up through those rocks down to the creek. I thought they just would walk by down in the drainage, not up the crazy steep area. Guess I was wrong. So the buck pic I got by accident. I am having fun trying to get unusual trail cam pics and sometimes it just happens by accident. here is a pic of how close the elk walked by my cam on the "trail" that I didn't think was there. You can see that snag branch over his back. Eventually I think they knocked my cam over.

Snapshot said he would lead an ATV tour starting about noon. I think last year they went up into the mtns for a few hours and had a great time. So anyone that wants to do an ATV ride you can show up a little before noon and meet with Brent (Snapshot). You can PM him too if you need more info on that. Amanda

Looks really good!! Amanda

Nicely looking animal there!! Amanda

I called the Arizona Sate Museum and they are going to try and take a look at whatever the sheriffs took out of there to try and id it. Hopefully we will learn something new. It won't happen until after july 5th though. Amanda

Height off the ground of course depends on the site and your target critters. I like the Covert 1 cams because you can just set them on the ground by a trail or water. They have enough wide angle lens to capture critters well. But sometimes I put them up in a tree angled down. Usually not more than 5 feet up. As far as direction, I don't really worry about it like everyone else seems to. Obviously the sun is more of a concern if you are in a wide open area, but if it's thick forest or brush, it's doesn't really matter as much. I worry more about how the animal is going to approach the area and I try to set it up so I get a good view of the animal and allow it more time in front of the camera. If you can angle it so it's not just perpendicular to a trail, but at more of a 45 degree angle, then you give the animal more time in the camera view area as it approaches the camera. For photos I use a 3 shot photo burst with a delay of about 20 seconds between triggers. With a 2 GB card you don't really have to worry about space and I like the ability to get as many pics of the animal as possible. Now if there are cows in the area, I would set the delay much longer, but I try and avoid areas with cows anyway. For video, I like 20 second or so for the clips and again maybe 20 seconds delay. I used to set it for longer video (1 min), but if you get a skunk or rabbit or something hopping through then you get 5 secs of action and then 55 seconds nothing. You could do 10 sec videos too, it really depends on how long you think the animal is going to be there and what you want to see. If you have salt or feed or something then the animal might be in the view longer and you can judge the buck better by giving him time to turn his head or lower it or whatever during your video. Another thing to think about with video is if your target animal runs in herds or not. If you use a short video sequence (10 sec) and a longer delay (1 min or more) you might miss animals that are in that group but not in the lead. Javelina would be a good example for that. I use some scent eliminator wipes to wipe my hands and the camera. Not sure it helps, but perhaps keeps bears from grabbing the cam. Amanda

Great looking cat!! It's exciting getting bobcats and lions on cam. Amanda

For you guys who know you are going for sure, please post how many people are in your group that is attending. I would like to be able to give Jim a headcount so he can know how much food to get. If you are coming, please bring your own beverages and also bring a side dish of some kind if you can. Potatoe salad, pasta salad, green salad, chips, whatever you enjoy. Jim will do some hotdogs and burgers and we may have that brisket too (althought TexasHunter just remembered his sister's wedding is that day!!!). I am thinking a good time would be to show up around 3 pm and maybe have food around 5 pm. Sound good to you guys? For those that can't make it at that time, feel free to go early, Jim says he will be there all day. I may go down the night before, not sure yet. I will post directions when I get the mileages from Jim. Amanda

No new info. I figure I will give the sheriffs some time to get an expert to look at the peices they took. The skull pretty much disintegrated when they took it out of the bank. So it's not so easy to id. But if they get someone to look at the teeth and the pics they might get an ID. Amanda Good one Jimmer!!

Have a great one Brian!! Nice chatting with you at the banquet! Amanda

Sheriff just called and said they are now convinced it's not human because they found some canine teeth. They still aren't sure what it is, but they say it's not human. I am still curious as to what it is. I think they are going to try and see if they can find someone to identify what animal it is. Amanda

Great American Deer Raffle results are up on the ADA site. http://www.azdeer.org Congratulations to all the winners!!

I will post them later today on the ADA site. When I do, I will post a link in the forum. Amanda

Glad to hear she is doing better. Here are some flowers for her in addition to prayers. Maybe they will make her smile. They are from the golden torch cactus in my yard. It opened 16 giant flowers last night. WOW!! they last less than 24 hrs. In a couple hrs they will be done, but here they are still open this morning.

Yes, that was an error in handy out both those to you. My helpers in the Silent Auction didn't know I had both packages in that folder. Can you call me and we can arrange to get those other certificates to Mark for his prize? 928-200-0544 Thanks! Amanda

The sheriffs don't seem to want to call the archaeologists in. One of the detectives just got trained in how to do this sort of excavation, so he is putting his new training to work. I called a friend of mine who is a retired archaeologist that specialized in bone ID, but she didn't have time to go up there today. Amanda

Awesome! You should enjoy that Grand Canyon trip and make sure you thank Monty (aka azsagebrush) for that donation, it's a great one! Which bronze shed did you get, the full size or the mini? Amanda

Some pics.... 1st is another overview of the bank with a wider angle than before. Check out the light colored layer and how it bulges up over the skull. Thanks for pointing that out KRP! closer view And notice the suture marks and how they seem to bulge up near the top. This is taken by pointing camera up while under the skull. So it's oriented as if the skull is upright. You can see the eye socket.

It was good times! I bid on a couple items in the live auction, nothing exciting like a hunt in Africa, but I got an ADA life membership for 1/2 the usual price and a weekend for four at Cherry Creek Lodge near Young. I got a quarter of beef from Millers southwest processing in the silent auction and some nice glasses and decanter with a pewter whiteail on them. Got some other stuff too. It was a hard night for my checkbook. I really didn't intend to spend that kind of money. Oh well, hard to pass on some of the deals. Wish I had more money, I would have bid on the amazing Mule Deer bronze that Jason made for the auction. Holy Cow that thing was AMAZING!! It went for a song though, which was a disappointment. Some really high dollar stuff went way too cheap, but people just don't feel flush with cash these days. I hope all the CouesWhitetail.com people had a great time! I didn't get to spend a ton of time with you guys, but I enjoyed the little time I had with you. Thanks Josh for being my personal flagger in your Grong ORANGE CouesWhitetail shirt! You looked good in that!! And thanks to Christian, Matt Woodward, Jeff Crosland, and Kevin Harris for helping out with setup and the live and silent auctions! Man, couldn't have done it without you all! Thank you! And thanks to all the CouesWhitetail.com'ers that donated items to the auctions. Wow, lots of great donations. Thanks for your generosity!! Amanda

It was good times! I bid on a couple items in the live auction, nothing exciting like a hunt in Africa, but I got an ADA life membership for 1/2 the usual price and a weekend for four at Cherry Creek Lodge near Young. I got a quarter of beef from Millers southwest processing in the silent auction and some nice glasses and decanter with a pewter whiteail on them. Got some other stuff too. It was a hard night for my checkbook. I really didn't intend to spend that kind of money. Oh well, hard to pass on some of the deals. Wish I had more money, I would have bid on the amazing Mule Deer bronze that Jason made for the auction. Holy Cow that thing was AMAZING!! It went for a song though, which was a disappointment. Some really high dollar stuff went way too cheap, but people just don't feel flush with cash these days. I hope all the CouesWhitetail.com people had a great time! I didn't get to spend a ton of time with you guys, but I enjoyed the little time I had with you. Thanks Josh for being my personal flagger in your Grong ORANGE CouesWhitetail shirt! You looked good in that!! And thanks to Christian, Matt Woodward, Jeff Crosland, and Kevin Harris for helping out with setup and the live and silent auctions! Man, couldn't have done it without you all! Thank you! And thanks to all the CouesWhitetail.com'ers that donated items to the auctions. Wow, lots of great donations. Thanks for your generosity!! Amanda

Well, I spent the afternoon out there with the Sheriffs. They were pretty convinced it was human at first because they started looking around and found teeth that sure looked human on the ground below the skull. They also found more bones just left of the skull in the wall, not sure what type, sort of like rib bones. But as they painstakingly cleared dirt above the skull to look down on it, we were becoming less convinced it was human. I still can't really tell what it is, but it's look less humanlike to me. There are some thicker suture marks that fork off that one you can see above and I think that would be the top part of the skull. The jaw seems too long, but if it's broken and shifted it could be the lower jaw? It's really hard to say. I just can't figure out what it is yet and I have looked at lots of skulls of animals. They only barely got it exposed more today. Took quite awhile due to trying to avoid breaking it. The sheriffs are headed back up there in the am. They should be able to solve the mystery tomorrow. I am very curious. They both thought it had been there a very, very long time. Animal? Human? The mystery continues. I will add some pics shortly. Amanda

I called it in to the Sheriff, they sent a detective over and asked questions. Now they want me to take them to the site, so after I grab a quick shower...I am off to show them. Will keep you all posted. I was half tempted to not report it at all so the thing wouldn't get disturbed, but oh well, it might be important. Amanda

Very nice!! Glad you guys had fun despite the heavy rain! Thanks for sharing your trip! Amanda

LOL! Nice to have you back DB. Amanda

It's a pretty neat find. I have found lots of skulls before, but never human. I was of course tempted to unearth the whole thing to get a better look at it, but it's extremely fragile and I figured it's better to get someone who is trained in archaeology to look at it before it gets damaged. It seems pretty old to me. It amazes me that my husband and I have walked by this bank a zillion times in the last 6 months and not noticed it. We have even looked at other stuff right there on that bank and not seen the skull. Amanda