Mike — Where do you live? Here in SW CO the big winter cow herds are visible daily in bright green grassy finger meadows on north-facing slopes, in some cases a hundred and more at a time. And they’re moving up to calving grounds, where I live. Judging from the elk I’m seeing and tracks, the relative ease of last winter has allowed a strong calf survival, which means an abundance of the best-eating elk there is, yearling cows (aside from spike bulls, which aren’t legal here in CO). No bear sign yet, and our mountain Merriam’s have yet to recover from a couple of recent tough winters, so are few and far between. All the usual birds and circling bands of vultures easy-riding the mountain thermals … waiting for this old hunk of meat to get out there for his lazy midmorning wild turkey chase with hopes I’ll croak and provide a meal. Best get out there now and do my duty. dp

as far as backyard – lots of deer ,doves , song birds and as Dave said at any given time in the foothills here we can see lots of elk – herds look real strong – we still have a lot of snow and warm temps are just hitting us now

We have the usual array of birds, phoebes, chipping sparrows, immature bald eagles. Have yet to see an osprey this spring, but they must be around.
My best sighting so far has been a young great horned owl. Apparently they can leave the nest without their mature feathers and are called branchers at this stage. They must still be tended to by an adult as they are not yet hunting. This one is about the size of an adult, but a real puff ball of grey fluffy feathers. I’ve been lucky enough to have seen him twice and the first time was with the kids and my wife.

Elk have mostly already started moving uphill, but there are a few still around. Lots of mulies all over the place. Coyotes and a few bl. bear tracks in the remnant snow. Eagles, osprey, merlins, red-tails, various owls, finches, warblers, sandhills, honkers, swans, and more.

Our Merriam’s seem to be in a similar state to Dave’s. After spending the last two weeks going out just about every morning on a limited draw tag and not hearing a single gobble, or response to any type of call, I’ve come to the conclusion that they’ve taken a beating this past winter (145% of normal snowpack) and the survivors are a little shell-shocked. They’re there – I’ve seen ’em crossing the road, but they’re silent and very, very wary.

Update: My morning turkey walk started with frontyard wildlife: 15 elk on the lush green fertilized lawn of the trophy house where I parked to start the hunt. They were reluctant to leave and didn’t scoot until I got out of the truck. I felt bad, but life is real. A ways up I got onto 7 more and very close; could have gotten some good pics if I’d had my “shirtpocket” cam in my pocket rather than my pack. I sat in the shade and watched them for 20 minutes until they finally drifted off, undisturbed. Then a single, and later another single, and the butt-end of a very big black bear going away, my first this year. But nary a peep from any alleged turkey. Brush is starting to leaf out and it will only get harder. When regular midday temps hit 80 I generally call it quits and start dreaming of fall elk. Another week of this spring fun, maybe.

Here in Southern Colorado where I live, deer, deer and more deer. The occasional elk herd moves through too. One critter I have not seen much of for the last couple of years are rabbits. We have a very healthy coyote population which has decimated our rabbit population.

Josh

On my short turkey hunt today I saw only two coyotes. One of them was the most stocky, beautiful coy dog I’ve ever seen. Don’t know what he’s eating but from where the pair were patrolling I’d say ground squirrels are the main fare. We too have been short on rabbits for a few years now but the biologists say they’re on an 8-year cycle and we’re at the bottom end of it. Prey population controls predator population and there could be a connection insofar as when the prey drops, so to the predators, and vice versa, with predator pops always chasing prey pops. I’m thinking the pair could be the reason there don’t seem to be any turkey hens nesting in that area this year. I was hoping the dogs would come back and attack my decoy, which was dancing nicely in the breeze. I had my camera ready but no such luck. It’s great we’re all seeing critters, in the yard or beyond. Spring is so full of wild life. I enjoy it all, and the exercise expended getting out to see it, while painful, helps make amends for another slothful snowed-in winter.

See a wide variety here out my window. Saw 5 jake turkeys earlier, a woodchuck, squirrels. Jumped a coyote out of the same brush pile 3 times this week, she must have a litter of pups there. See deer daily, saw one with horns staring to develop yesterday. Saw a bobcat earlier this spring.

I had this little feller wander into my backyard the other day!!

Hay Chris, how’s college going? Glad to see you stop by! Nice bird too.

I went down to the beaver pond a few days ago. The wood ducks are doing their thing, as are the blue herons and the turkeys. It was a birdy evening. Saw a muskrat, and this unlucky beaver that accidentally fell on the end of my arrow.

Going to make beaver stew, and use the tail for the bow I took out…

College is still goin 😳 I’m done for the summer, and just trying to find some summer work now:)

👿 Don’t mention wood ducks to me, lol. I’ve been busting my butt to get some good photos of them and they are winning as of now! 🙄

I wish we could hunt beavers here, we have to trap them . . . sometimes it would have been way easier to just spear them! Thats funny you brought that up cause I was just thinkin of grillin some beaver hind quarters this weekend:)

I feel like a newby here cause I’ve been away for so long 😀

I’ve seen rabbits, squirrels and hen turkeys in my yard. The turkeys have been a huge comeback. But no hens for spring hunting. I think they like eating the bugs in my all organic yard and garden. Kind of the sign of a nice balanced ecosystem in my yard. They probably read the “Don’t walk on the grass because we just sprayed herbicides” sign and high tail it out of there. Jawge