[Tim B]

I scouted some new teritory this morning and came across a boulder. It is 3 ft high and as big around with a few small shelfs/ levels to it. Near the top was a pile of scatt. Fox i believe...looked just like yote scatt, had hair in it, but was only 1/2 as big. I know I could put in a dirt hole near the boulder, or even a scent post....but then I will catch the yotes that are in the area....ANY IDEAS???
thanks
Tim B

 

[Asa Lenon]

Tim:
Generally speaking, sets should be made in spots where the canine can see clearly around for at least 30 feet before lowering their heads. I've watched both fox and coyote from blinds and if the set backing was too high to see over, they got nervous and wary, moving on without working the set. I don't know what you had in mind with the 3 foot high boulders but a word of caution about setting right up tight to them as a backing.
Ace

 

[wackyquacker]

I'm with Asa, "in general" and "I don't know what you had in mind with the three foot high boulders...". You haven't given us enough info or your thoughts; I'll give you a couple of "ifs". If you are trapping for cats boulders usually are a good thing. If you are in an area if lots of boulders setting around them can pay off. If you have a set made close to a boulder and you get a fresh snow, e.g., one that drives the prey critters into and under the rocks, the coyotes will often work in close especially if the boulder is a bit over hung so as to leave a patch of bare ground at the base.

 

[jim-NE]

high points...

I've noticed in winter time where the local road crews left large piles of sand or other material, and after a snowfall, that there are sometimes coyote tracks up and all over these large, peaked mounds. I've seen it on smaller mounds, too. Your critter could be fox, cat, or coyotes, hard to say without seeing the scat or tracks.
Just seems to be a habit of all three to go up high once and awhile to get a good view of what's around them. I've read about late-winter fox sets made on top of muskrat and beaver mounds...the only prominent thing sticking up out of the snow in the relatively flat terrain of a pond covered in ice & snow.
Birds like to perch up on those things, too. Especially predatory birds. Have to be careful of sets made to nab something up on top of high points because of that.
From that high vantage point though, a set made in plain view a few steps away, one with a lot of "eye-appeal" will certainly catch a fox or coyote's eye and may work for you. Maybe a big pile of dirt next to a dirthole set, or set made with a torn-up pattern in front of it, something like that.