Coyote out at sunset

92 degrees. Sunset. North side of Mt. Diablo.

Coyote out on hiker hill just before sunset. Takes a rest in grass near the trail. Leaves scat. Investigates the trail until it gets to the gateway oak where it takes another rest. Investigates the wood piles. Disappears down the back of the hill into deer canyon.

Turkeys on the far northern fire break.

Striped feral cat out hunting in rattlesnake field. Caught a mouse. I’ve seen this same cat catch 3 mice and two birds so it’s probably killed many many more. Fewer animals in the park and less food for other native predators. Keep your cats in doors.

7:11 - bat.

Earlier today. 1 pm. High 90’s. Smokey. Mt Diablo Mines trail head. 2 young deer at the top of the first trail up the hill. One feeding. One resting.

Lots of tracks on the dusty trail past the mercury mine. Horse, deer, coyote, and a small canine, possibly a very old gray fox track. About 1.25 inches long. Toes 2 and 5 too far forward to be a coyote. Two claw marks present in most tracks so unlikely to be a cat. Trail is too purposeful and straight ahead to be a small dog, but not all the prints are still visible. Hard to analyze the gait when so much of the trail is missing, but there are both signs pointing towards and away from fox so it is not definite. Only some deer tracks looked somewhat recent, but I’ll keep my eye on this stretch of trail.

Posted on September 29, 2020 03:01 AM by bruin_mike