Seen some tiny babies at our place in Milam County recently, and one last night in south CS that wasn't much bigger than a breadbox!

Last week I had to wait a day to finish mowing a lawn in Copperfield because mama "hid" her baby in the middle of the front yard.

Very nice! I saw a picture of twins from a buddy of mine just E of college station last week in his backyard. They had to have dropped that week or one week prior.

We had one fawn drop early in Uvalde Co. but the rest want drop until the end of the month. Hoping to keep the coyotes at bay but all of the rain has some really nice cover on the ground, so I am optimistic.

I've seen a bunch of baby fawns following momma around the past couple of weeks. Got a bunch of pics on trail cam too. Robertson County near Bryan.

...unfortunately, got a picture on Sunday of a coyote with a fawn in its mouth. made me really sad. subsequent pictures on same camera are probably momma looking for it.

I know they have their place in the ecosystem, but I really hate coyotes... if our deer herd was thriving like it was 10 years ago, I wouldn't be so mad at them I suppose.

I won't post the picture here for yalls sake. it's infuriating . ..but I think I'm going out there tonight to try to call that coyote in and shoot him.. problem is, I'm not a hunter. I suck at hunting. trying to teach myself.

Plenty of folks on this board with thermals in and around CS that I am sure would be willing to help. You can learn a ton going out with someone with experience, especially if they have the right gear too.

I'd offer to help but most of my gear (handheld scanner, coyote calls, bog pod, etc) less rifle + thermal, is out at deer camp... I hope you get that coyote tonight!

I bought myself a foxpro electronic call and a thermal. ...a few weeks ago tried to call a coyote in and only got interest from a curious racoon coming out of the brush to check out my call speaker ...it was great practice with the thermal though.

Howdy, Rockport home owner, we have HUNDREDS of deer in the Country Club area. We have had fawns in our flower beds multiple times. However, what gets me is that mama deers are not all that great a mom. You can see the fawn nursery but the mama does not it go to long, they are kinda around the fawns, but not all that interested in them.

oh no said:

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I won't post the picture here for yalls sake. it's infuriating . ..but I think I'm going out there tonight to try to call that coyote in and shoot him.. problem is, I'm not a hunter. I suck at hunting. trying to teach myself.

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Coyotes have very little impact on the deer population. It's part of the nature cycle anyway.

schmellba99 said:

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oh no said:

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I won't post the picture here for yalls sake. it's infuriating . ..but I think I'm going out there tonight to try to call that coyote in and shoot him.. problem is, I'm not a hunter. I suck at hunting. trying to teach myself.

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Coyotes have very little impact on the deer population. It's part of the nature cycle anyway.

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Yes I know. Is it wrong that I still want to shoot the coyote?

Awesome! Keep at it and good luck

Can't blue star this enough sir. Lots of predator research done by our own Alma Mater that has proven, time and again, that Coyotes kill few healthy fawns. It would be very safe to say that the fawn was either already dead, weak or diseased...,. so the coyote that is being condemned was more than likely doing exactly what it was intended to do.....rid the ecosystem of a dead, weak, or sick fawn....making room for one that is healthy.
That same coyote will eat its weight of rats and mice and other rodents that need to be controlled.

The number one killer of healthy fawns is vehicles. More fawns are killed on highways than will ever be consumed by a predators.

On my way to church on Sunday ( I drive 40 minutes on a rural road to get there) we counted five fawns dead on the highway...that is about 35 miles.

How do you know the coyote killed the fawn? As I posted above odds are it was either still born, died after birth, was sick or just weak and would not have survived anyway. Coyote doing exactly what it is supposed to.....ridding the ecosystem of a inferior animal more than likely....getting rid of one mouth so that that a healthy fawn has more of a chance to survive.
Do we need predator control if the populations get unbalanced? Absolutely! Does every coyote need to be killed cause you saw one with a meal? No.

Here is what I know:

If you control your coyote/predator population pretty religiously and then suddenly stop, your fawn numbers and subsequent deer population are absolutely going to tank... I have personally watched this. Its not hard to miss when you go from about 50-60% of your does having fawns on them to less than 10%. We also had a year or two with almost no fawns spotted at all.

Longer term, yes things will hopefully stabilize but if you want to compare the deer density of our place vs one not that far down the road that is actively managing their predator problem, the difference isn't even close... their deer numbers are probably 2-3x ours despite being less than 1/3 of the size.

So spare me with the coyotes don't have an impact on the deer population...

Gunny456 said:

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How do you know the coyote killed the fawn?

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i don't. The picture made me sad though. And I want to use my new toy.

Not doubting what you say at all, as I certainly know you are knowledgeable about deer management on your ranch. Fact remains, solid research for many years shows that coyotes kill few healthy fawns in most ranges. As I have stated on other threads.... I was privileged to have worked with Dr. Inglis (WFS Prof at our school) for two summer in south Texas on a predator project and our findings were the same as other researchers....coyotes have little effect on healthy fawn populations.
As my own experience on our ranch in the hill country, for all those many years, we saw very few examples of whitetail fawns, Axis fawns, Fallow fawns, or any other of our exotic babies ever affected by coyotes....and we never killed or trapped coyotes on our place.
Anecdotal exceptions can surely be found in certain areas, just like in your case on your land....but more than likely lots of other range conditions, or the presence of Apex predators, or many other circumstances factor in to fawn survival, other than just coyote populations.
As I said in another post...if we really are concerned with fawn mortality we need to figure out how to get rid of vehicles..as they are more the cause of healthy fawn mortality than any predator populations.

Shoot at a tin can at 200 yards. The five fawns I saw dead on the highway made me sad too. So guess we need to shoot cars.

Gunny456 said:

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Shoot at a tin can

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well that doesn't sound very fun. How well do tin cans show up on screen with a thermal sensor?

Probably pretty well if you put them on a stove first

I guess that will depend on how hot it is.

You beat me to it!