Bird damage.
 

So what is everyone's cure or preventative measures that they take to minimize eagle and raven damage to snared coyotes? Been at it for 4 days now and lost 2 out of first 6 catches ..lots of bait present.

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I lost one to birds today also. 36 hour check on that one. Lots of bait also but it’s frozen and not warm and fresh like my coyote lol.

The one that is a total loss was a.pup and very small but doesn't make it much easier to take ..I've got 8 eagles between these 2 spots and if things dont get any better I'll just pull snares and go back to calling or sitting bait piles ..My checks are 48 hrs and its 20.miles one way .

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When I was getting raven and eagle damage it was mostly because of two things, my sets were too close to the bait especially when bait was frozen a fresh coyote is easy pickings, and if my sets were to much out in the open where if the coyote died it was most likely to be out in the open and not in brush or other underlying trees/ deadfall.
Just my experiences and since those two changes haven’t suffered any bird damage now in two seasons.

Thanx bud , I have removed a couple of the real open sets but i dont have a real lot of cover anywhere ...i may trying moving bait out into wide open like on the river ice and see what happens

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Correction you dont have an actual tree for miles :snapoutofit:

Oh , there might be one on the east end of the county ...in some ones yard ..lol.

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Just had a pup with the guts picked out by ravens. This was in plenty of tree cover up here but it was a bit close to the bait. Probably 15 yards back.

That’s my first damaged animal. Not to hi jack but what’s the best process to skin , flesh and sew a pelt with so much damage. ?

The other thing that helps is having enough bait to keep a lot of birds busy I like bait of butcher scraps so they aren’t fighting on the same dead carcass. If not then they’ll fight for it and you’ll get the odd one that’ll wander down trails looking for other food.

No problem with a hijack ..lol.. my skinner has pieced together good enough to at least get some payback ..he should have been a seamstress, he is gonna patch a piece off the totaled one into the lesser damaged of the pair .

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Hair transplant. Priceless. Lol

This will be my first go at stitching up. Dental floss, flashing line? Any help is appreciated. I’ve seen a few videos. Just getting up the nerve to go at it . Dog is still froze solid.

Depending on your local drugstore a few carry veterinary supplies. Packages of sutures are cheap. The suture's half round needle is razor sharp and the line is connected to it. There are several different strengths of line to chose from and enough line attached to stitch up a few holes.

Excellent tip. I’ll check.

I seem to recall my guy uses ultra thin braided fishing line for sewing up coyotes.

Setting snares in the wide open is a sure way to get birds to eat your fur. But in this naked land, often can’t get away from it.

Make your bait pile in the wide open where the birds feel safe to eat. If your bait is hidden away in the thick, he will feel safer eating a coyote from in the wide open.

Some eagles you cannot win. These things can live 50 years in captivity, so they have a lifetime to learn. You either increase are check frequency and make it early morning or pay the piper.

I don’t have any experience trapping Yotes in the prairie so i’m Just brain storming here. Why not throw out some yote carcasses in the area so the birds pick on them instead of your caught furred ones. I’m thinking that a carcass without a pelt would be more attractive to them and it won’t cause the Yotes to avoid the area.

Flight......If the wound is in the belly it’s pretty hard to repair. The hide is very thin there and unless you are very careful washing and boarding the stitches tend to rip apart. It can be done but it can be a bugger. I put up lots of shot dogs and I use a #5 Glover’s needle from Halford’s and dental floss. A normal sewing needle would work fine on the thin belly skin. Good luck!

Thanks Dave,

I’ll give it a go this week and take a few pics to document the process.
If nothing else I’ll do my best then home tan him for the wall.

Marty,

The stinger worked well, much less disturbance at the snare site than one would think. Had him laid out pretty quick.

I use the heavy duty sewing thread from wally world its not slick like dental floss so it bites the hide and keeps it together ..id imagine the braided fishing line would be similar as well

Thanx for the replies and comments folks..after a sleepless night wondering what to do I moving to early morning every day checks AND moving my meated bait sites away from the brush where I have my snares..i will still place heavy scented gut piles down near my original bait site to keep dogs coming thru . Hopefully the eagles will start working the meat piles and stay a touch farther from my catches .. the gut piles will get cleaned up quickly but leave some scent to attract coyotes . If this doesnt work I will just set some boats and.make a blind where I can sit and shoot incoming coyotes, wont be as productive number wise as the snares but I'm not gonna feed those beautiful coyotes to a bunch of scavenging ugly eagles .
As for feeding coyote carcasses to the birds I cant think of a better way to teach them to eat coyote . Let you know how it goes .


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It over for 2 of my bait sites ..another bird wreck ..sick and tired of feeding my catch to the eagles .https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...11e4b2b8c8.jpg

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Well had my first bird damaged yote today on a small yote was my fault snare was set to close to bait an when it died was out in the open so was fair game for them so damaged to bother salvaging