Yesterday, Herb and I visited the two trail cameras that I have at the base of Goats Peak, near the highway. The first camera visited monitors a coyote scent post. Coyotes, like dogs, usually scent mark some object that is near the ground, along their commonly used routes of travel. In this place, however, the coyotes just use a patch of flat ground near the base of a tree. There they put their noses to the ground to read the scent messages left by others, urinate, and roll on the ground to leave their own scent.

The first two pictures show coyotes examining the ground for scent messages.

This video  shows a coyote rolling on the ground to leave a message of her own. (The strange lighting of this video is caused by the early morning light shining directly toward the camera.)

The last picture attached is of a young mule deer buck with just one antler. The left side of his forehead shows  the base from which his antler has recently been shed. This is the season when bucks shed their antlers. A new set of antlers will grow during the coming spring and summer.

Although there were coyote tracks near the second camera, no pictures had been taken. Moisture condensation inside the camera and battery failure in cold weather are some of the reasons for failure of trail cameras in winter.