Oh, good grief. The stupid things have followed me up from OK. They're closing in on me! ;-)

Diane

Very Cool.

We haven't had any show up around here lately that I am aware of, but up north in Minnesota/Wisconsin/etc. they are starting to get regular confirmations.

Missouri is very advanced in how their wildlife dept tracks these things.

There has been a few confirmed cases in KS and one I know of a month ago on the MO side not far from the KC area. I have heard of a few unreported sightings. Very good trail pictures that leave very little doubt. And another sighting close to me in the last month. KS and the area around me has seen more over the last 2 years. Whether that is due to more trail cameras ect or just more moving around I'm still not sure. Jay

Diane and Glenda, Y'all be careful outside. It wouldn't be fun to look up and see those eyes staring back at you.

With all due respect, I'd rather see them there than see them here. Now, y'all don't take that personally, alright?

All we've had this year are bobcats (LOTS of bobcat kittens) and big coyotes with heavier-than-usual winter coats. They are out hunting in the middle of the day, so I guess food is scarce.

Scott, Got tons of deer there this year? We have outrageously high amounts here this winter.

Jay, I wonder too if the increasing sightings are due to more movement or more trail cameras.

On the local news in Dallas this week, they showed video footage of a mama bobcat and her kittens hanging out on a family's deck and in their backyard in the Frisco, TX, area in Collin County. That neighborhood has had bobcats around ever since it was built, but this is the first time these people have spotted bobcats just outside their door. Maybe it is just the very cold weather causing a lot of these animals to be more visible while searching for food.

Yesterday we had a big coyote just across the street around noon, and one of my cats didn't come inside at the usual time. I called and called her and she didn't come. I walked down towards the road because she likes to hang out in the tall grass by the little pond. She was sitting there hidden in the grass. Something had scared her because when she saw me she immediately ran to me at a high rate of speed and jumped up into my arms from about 4' away. Clearly she was scared to death of something because we've had her 8 or 10 years and never once has she run to me like that or jumped up into my arms. I wish she could talk and tell me what happened to frighten her so. I suspect she saw that coyote and sat there hidden in the tall grass afraid to move.

Dawn

I don't think we had a single confirmation in Oklahoma (outside of the panhandle) this past year, but I can't remember when the Atoka one happened last winter, maybe it was at the beginning of Jan. This is a little surprising since a lot of other plains states are seeing them regularly. I suspect it is mostly due to the populations in texas not increasing, but the South Dakota/Neb populations increasing a lot causing them to move out more to the surrounding plains states up there or along the rivers to the east. Still, no reproducting populations outside of the Black Hills and NE Nebraska, and the mountains at the tip of the Oklahoma panhandle.

We have about the same deer populations recently, but our turkey numbers have really declined here. We went out tracking Thursday after the snow stopped and we tracked one htat appeared to be bobcat and a few that might have been coyote or dog. Lots of rabbits, too.

Scott,

Our wild turkey population has been down for several years now too.

Since we have all the bobcats and coyotes around, we have almost no rabbits at the present time, but you know, that's how it cycles up and down. In a while, the worm will turn and we'll start seeing more rabbits again and fewer coyotes.

So many deer are coming to feed at night that it is just silly. I was putting out more feed on the snowy days but have cut back now that it is sunny and warm again so they won't become dependent on it in good foraging weather.

Last night a buck came right around sunset and he was west of me with the sun setting right behind him so he just looked like a silhouette. He was so big, at first I thought one of the neighbor's young cows had somehow gotten through the fence and into our back pasture.

We were out tracking in the snow and later on the mud, and based on what we saw, the following have been roaming around here since the snow fell a couple of weeks ago: many deer, bobcats, coyotes and/or feral dogs, skunks, armadilloes, rabbits, possums, (though not close to the house), raccoons, squirrels, and some sort of small cat....might be a neighbor's domestic cats or something else but it wasn't our cats because they don't roam back into that area. Tons of bird tracks too but, thankfully, no feral hog tracks.

Dawn