Poor day afield

[CMUmallory]

Went up to higgins lake area snowshoe hunting today!! Conditions seemed not to favor the dogs or something but we couldnt get nothing going(spent half the morning yelling for the dogs). Has anybody had any good hunts lately?

[Airoh]

Was it better than being at work?!?:)

Welcome CMUmallory

[CMUmallory]

ohh yes!! Its ALWAYS better than being at work!!

[Dangler]

I guess if I had driven from St. Louis to Higgins Lake, ran no hares and had dog problems, I'd be bummed, too.

We all want some kind of return for our effort. I feel your pain, having harvested only one rabbit this season in 6 hunts with my dogs. This is the worst bunny season I've seen in a long time. Fortunately, my investment is small since I walk out my door to hunt. But if I get a chance to walk the fields with my beagles, the day ain't a total loss. I feel sorry for the dogs, though, when they don't even get a rabbit to chase.

[Whit1]

Oh to hear the sonorous baying of the hounds on a hot rabbit track, that is pure music, but not frequently in play anymore. Back in the 50's-early 80's we hunted bunnies in the Grand Rapids area and after 1972 up here in Manistee County. I know of no one who has rabbit dogs anymore. There just are any rabbits or hares to be had. It has been this way for about ten years now so it is not cyclical.

[Dangler]

Whit (or anybody else), do ya have any idea why the bunnies are down? Here's opinions I've heard:

1. Habitat loss? Nope, the areas I've hunted look the same as they did 10 years ago.
2. Coyotes? Nope, I've lived here for 13+ years and seen 2 in my many hours afield, and we have a group of serious yote hunters that are in this area every winter helping thin the pack.
3. Weather? Nope, other than last year, we haven't had a long-term snow cover for a long time.
4. Other predators? Maybe! We have a pretty good supply of hawks and owls of all varieties around here, and I've seen evidence of raptor kills on bunnies. Also, my neighbor and I removed 14 cats from our rural yards during 2001 (I won't elaborate how we did it), and there are still more around.

I'm at a loss to explain how my yard is filled with bunnies all summer long, but when December rolls around, I can't find one with a beagle.

[Whit1]

Dangler,
I can only speak for this area here in Manistee County. I believe the problem is multi-faceted.

1. Loss of habitat: All of those huge blocks of pines, especially on state land have grown up. We used to hunt white scooters in those pine plantations.

2. The "tree huggers/bunny huggers" have raised such a rucous about any type of clear cutting that I am not seeing as much of that type of timber harvest. I am talking clear cutting in aspen stands. Some of our forests should be looked on as a renewable crop, aspen is one of these tree species. The best way to manage them is to clearcut every 30-40 yrs. ( I find it ironic how tree hugger/bunny hugger types can oppose harvesting policies that benefit so many species.)

3. The number of hawks and other raptors take their toll

4. Racoons, ferile cats, and other small, furred predators kill a lot of rabbits.

5. My #1 reason? In a word coyotes. Just because you don't see coyotes doesn't mean that they are not there in numbers. In the past 20 years the coyote population has literally exploded. I believe this is true in most parts of Michigan. Coyotes are one of the most secretive and adaptable animals on earth. It is said that, when the world's population of species dwindles to zero, the last two animal's alive will be a cockroach and a coyote.

[Banditto]

Dangler, where do you live near Houghton Lake? I have been hunting there for 20 years. I agree with Whit that there is a huge number of coyotes in the area.

My buddies own The Lagoon Resort near Randy's Country Kitchen on the west shore. They complain to me all the time about the yotes.

We hunt off Jeff's road, near Canoe Camps, Snowbowl, private land north of 55 west of town, and the Camp Co-be-ac area. I saw 5 this year rifle hunting in only 4 days. I didn't get a chance to bow hunt there, but my buddies said they had about the same experience.

[Dangler]

Banditto, I live southeast of Lansing near Mason, not by Houghton Lake.

Your and your buddies' experience is what I would interpret as a coyote problem (5 sightings in 4 days). In the 13 years I've lived here, I have spent hundreds of hours behind my house in the swamps, woods and fields that I hunt. I've seen one coyote here, and another one 1/2 mile across the road on some property I hunted twice. I've heard them howl at night twice, and I've found what I suspected to be coyote tracks in the snow, also twice. In 13 years.

Compared to your experience, that's why I don't think they're that populous around this immediate area. I know they're elusive, but if they're thick enough to seriously affect the rabbit population, I would see them more often.

[Banditto]

Oh ya I agree with you there. My in-laws used to live in Eaton Rapids, and now reside in Lansing. I used to hunt there, and now hunt in Howell. I have yet to see a coyote in either of those places. And I see more pheasants and rabbits on any given day than I can take. But if you have been following the coyote reports, they are making their way in the Lansing area, and I mean into the downtown area... there have been sightings right in peoples back yards by the old water works.

[Banditto]

BTW we rabbit hunted over the weekend. Took two rabbits and those were the only two seen in about 10 hours of hunting some of the best rabbit habitat there is. Normally you see dozens of them... but then again there is a coyote den the size of a mini-van right on the center of the property.

[CMUmallory]

rabbit population just goes in a cycle i guess. we must be at or near the bottom!

[Banditto]

This summer on the parcel of land I was talking about above there were rabbits all over the place. Tracking deer at night is a good way to guage how many bunnies you have. They are social at night freeze in the dark.

[goose hunter]

Lots of owls, hawks, and eagles. And not much snow cover to slow down the fox, yotes, and the household pampered predators like cats and dogs. May just be a change of habitat. So many thing it can be, may never know.

[Dangler]

During my hunt last Saturday, my dogs jumped 3 rabbits, a good day for this season. My buddy and I each got 1 with our .22s, and got a good look at the third one but didn't shoot since it ran across the county road.

All 3 of these rabbits were as big as any I've ever seen. The 2 we cleaned were a big buck and doe jumped in the same small thicket.

My observations from this hunt might not mean a thing, but could it be that the young rabbits from last spring didn't fare well, and the surviving population is a smaller group of older rabbits? Probably not, just thinking out loud.

[Al, L]

Cats are a problem, just think of how many you see along the roads, Hawks Probably the biggest problem in this area. some owls also. Yotes I'd say 2nd biggest problem in this area. I don't see them roaming except late in the evening once in a great while. Their tracks are every where after a snow and the dusting pits in the summer. Eagles apeer to pefer road killed deer after fish. Me I'd go after the cats, the yotes and hawks, mostly you will have use the sss method.


:D I'm in my own world. :D :D It's all right they know me there.