My experience in NM is plague or drought. Ranchers are happy. Just look at those thistles that grow up when those prairie poodles decimate the pasture vegetation. But the remaining burrows are still open and dangerous.
I was in WY the first part of June this year there was no plague in the area where I hunted. I had a very successful trip. Where did you get the drivers side grab handle for your truck?
Those mounds look grown over to me. Could be any number of things but the town looks dead I agree. I'd keep my eyes open for ground owls and coyote tracks. If the dogs are gone they leave a gap in the food chain for that area predators move on. When we shot Pdogs in the Dakotas we usually saw a good number of ground owls in and amongst the the towns. A rancher told us they nest in the old burrows and the dogs make great alarms for them. Those owls sure eat the dead ones, we've watched them pick them in the evening from our hill top.
We were in western Nebraska 1st week in June. We had plenty of targets, but still not like last year? We heard plague was in Buffalo Gap just north west of where were.
