Dire wolf at my door

You place your location as "VERY rural Oregon".
So interesting that you wake this July 4th with a pandemic altered chorus of noises probably caused by pandemic altered conditions.
Might be eerie, but at least you are hearing wolves.

I would define my undisclosed location as "Very suburb Portland Oregon". In short, even though I have seen Deer and Coyote, wander into the paved streets of my location, No severed deer legs or Wolves howling.....yet.

The spine chilling eeriness I am met with today, is the absence of sound.
Usually the 4th in my environment is a day of hearing continuous fireworks being let off, from all of the surrounding neighborhood. Then by nightfall, the big fireworks displays being set off in the sky.

But this year? Silence.
And big fireworks displays that have happened every 4th of July for decades and decades, cancelled.

Well in that silence.....maybe I too hear some wolves howling.

 

Do you keep a good rifle around just in case, or something else?

 

several

 

When I awoke, the Dire Wolf
Six hundred pounds of sin
Was grinnin at my window
All I said was "come on in"

 

I look at that as encouraging, but also sad. Unfortunately, we need to let nature enjoy these times as we deny ourselves.

 

I guess I'm not really defining it as either encouraging or discouraging.
Stepping out my door today?

It is dire wolf howl eerie.

 

Dad's very rural farm-ranch got its first wolf signs many years ago. Though very distant from the 1990s Yellowstone re-introductions, it has a much more direct wilderness connection path to those packs than does anyplace in Oregon.

When first spotted, there were lots of tracks in the snow (spouse and I found these while snowshoeing, including a progressive wolf-moose pursuit, before dad saw any, but other local outdoor folk were previously reporting signs), a couple were caught on a game camera (one with a collar, then IDed and tracked to where he migrated from), a moose kill, and a calf kill. Since then they have reappeared down at normal human elevation some winters, but stay sparse most winters.

Wolf presence in the back country seems to be the main reason we now see far more elk in the front country. Elk populations haven't really increased, just moved. I saw plenty of elk there last week, two herds this time inside of the normal one, though missed seeing the young elk calves.

Though I commonly hear numerous coyote packs singing to each other in the evening, I haven't yet seen any live wolves or heard their howls. Dogs bringing back deer legs doesn't happen anymore due to current lack of resident dogs, but I do find deer parts in the fields before the spring growth begins in earnest. I just presume these are mostly ordinary winter mortality then scavenged by coyotes, but lack sufficient evidence to determine what really happened.

As for suburban noise at my own house, the covid-19 changes greatly reduced total traffic and aircraft noise, but increased street racing noise. The traffic noise is now rebounding towards normal. While fireworks noise has been abnormally low so far today, it hasn't been that low for the week leading up to this holiday.

 

Still had them here. In fact relaxing of fireworks laws have lead to people setting them off nearly everyday in the week prior.

 

Well, yesterday, now....but we still have "personal" fireworks. And as the day progressed into the evening heard more and more. But overall very subdued for the 4th of July. Quietest 4th of July ever.
And all the surrounding BIG fireworks displays (Professional) were cancelled.

All understandable, but again still eerie. Never had a 4th of July with that vibe, hope I never again.

 

There have been 'wolf sightings' in my area but we usually get the red ones east of the Rockies (Canis lupus rufus) rather than the larger Grey ones (Canis lupus without the rufus)
Although I will unreservedly and unapologetically shoot any coyotes and feral piggies I find, I tend to leave Mr fox and intend to also leave Mr Wolf alone because they mostly leave humans alone.

I usually keep the first hole of my revolver loaded with shot, and usually that's all one will ever need to keep the wolf howling away from the front door.

Works for bi-peds too

 

While both make enough noise to scare away the "innocent", we reserve shot for the Bosses 890. My 21 just makes one hole.

 

Fireworks were sparse but someone thought it was funny to throw firecrackers around at the dog park. There is an overpass over the dog park.

Bob Wilson

 

There is no shooting of coyotes on dad's place. Despite what many people believe, they are not a meaningful threat to the cattle. Or to people.

 

"600 pounds of sin" was an overstatement by about triple. Back in dire days, wolfie competed with saber-tooth tigger, also about 200 pounds. But more toothy.

 

But it was a male....yeah...uh...that's the ticket....

 

"fresh deer leg"@1 seemed strange as hunters did not eat what they earned.

As far as shootin', if one has a gun and is in a serious canid's target space, you pretty much need to discharge. Aim wrong first, but re-focus quickly in case message not received.