Any idea what's causing these circles in my gravel driveway?

[cdaigle430]

I think its a mudhole where the water collected and it sunk while it drainied in these two spots.

 

[PILOON]

Condensation dripping from a car air conditioning?

 

[Pixguy]

Seriously tho, like others said when I park my rv on my gravel drive and have a hard rain the water comes off hard and leaves areas like that.

 

[DieselBound]

Need to inspect closely. WHERE did the gravel go? I cannot tell from the pictures (we're only able to do 2D here!).

 

[GeneV]

Oh man, she was so fine in that film!

 

[tibadoe]

Air brake tank pop off.

 

[sixdogs]

Need to inspect closely. WHERE did the gravel go? I cannot tell from the pictures (we're only able to do 2D here!).

Gravel looks to be pushed to the side in a disbursed way. It does resemble pics on the net of a bird dusting itself in the stone dust. I haven't seen any birds but maybe night birds or birds that show up at dusk.

It's not rain dripping off anything. Those small stones are 3/8" +/- so no dripping anything will push them. It's not like the bank run gravel of Maine that's full of sandy fines. Those could be pushed by dripping but not the crushed rock here.

There haven't been any trucks in the drive with air brakes. It's just a driveway with no turnaround and we're here 24/7 so no trucks. It's not an animal whizzing in the gravel because I've done that lots of time and all that happens in the crushed rock gets wet and stays put.


So, it's not all of those things and I'm leaning towards a bird dusting itself. I haven't seen any birds, however. The only other animals are a rabbit and some possums and coons. That's it.

 

[the old grind]

I'd typed asking about partterns and locations but the phone rang and I ran out for a beer with it my pocket, yakking away. When I came back OP's post above had answered my questions and more.

For me setting up trail cams is much about getting coverage with a minimum of false triggers. I have high hopes for quick results .. if robins aren't pooping in OP's driveway.

 

[stuckmotor]

Thanks for putting that up, Moss. I was thinking of that very scene...Dodge Man probably was, too.

 

[sixdogs]

I'd typed asking about partterns and locations but the phone rang and I ran out for a beer with it my pocket, yakking away. When I came back OP's post above had answered my questions and more.

For me setting up trail cams is much about getting coverage with a minimum of false triggers. I have high hopes for quick results .. if robins aren't pooping in OP's driveway.

It's not easy setting up a game cam for the driveway. There aren't any trees to post on plus that's the area where the dogs spend 95% of their time. I would have hundreds of pics of dogs daily as well as many more from when they want out at night. All that plus I think it's birds that are doing this circle thing. I sort-of hoped someone would have an easy answer but it didn't work that way.

If it keeps up I'll put up the cam.

 

[newbury]

It’s from the exhaust turn down on a 1969 Plymouth Satellite, 383 2 barrel, bias ply tires, 4 door, white with a black interior, 727 torqueflite transmission, 180 pound driver, the spare tire is missing from the truck.

What truck? And with or without whitewalls?

 

[K5lwq]

It's not easy setting up a game cam for the driveway. There aren't any trees to post on plus that's the area where the dogs spend 95% of their time. I would have hundreds of pics of dogs daily as well as many more from when they want out at night.

This may be the answer. One of your dogs might like to scratch by spinning in a circle. The dog I had that would do that made circles all over the driveway.

 

[newbury]

Attached are two pics of circular clean spots in my gravel driveway. I have about seven of them. All that happens is the gravel is brushed away from the base material. Almost all are nearly round and I've seen them for a couple years and almost always in the fall.

These two areas in the driveway are maybe 30 ft apart.

View attachment 722870 . View attachment 722871

Many years ago I put a camera on our back door, a motion sensor on the rear fence gate, and hooked it all to a VHS VCR. It was set to start recording at motion sense and go for 10 minutes. I got home and the 4 hour tape was full on day 1!! So I played it.

Robin flies up on the gate, poops, flies away. 9.9 minutes of nothing.
Robin flies up on the gate, poops, flies away. 9.9 minutes of nothing.
Robin flies up on the gate, poops, flies away. 9.9 minutes of nothing.
Robin flies up on the gate, poops, flies away. 9.9 minutes of nothing.
Robin flies up on the gate, poops, flies away. 9.9 minutes of nothing.
Robin flies up on the gate, poops, flies away. 9.9 minutes of nothing.
Robin flies up on the gate, poops, flies away. 9.9 minutes of nothing.
.........

4 hours of that.

But at least you confirmed what was happening. You didn't HAVE to view the entire 4 hours.
Sixdogs only has about 7 spots. Video record, then when a NEW spot appears search back through the record to see when it first occurred.
I do that frequently with my Wyze cams. (which seem to have a very poor search interface).

 

[sixdogs]

OK, we might be onto something. I took the dogs out in the dark at 4:30 this morning and in the reflected light could see where the dogs whizzed at night or day before. Look at the perfect circles in the picture. The surface looks a little jarred because I must have moved the camera.



Perfect circle of dog whiz. Now, the day before, I saw nearby where a skunk, coon or possum had been digging for grubs in the lawn. So, I wonder if one of those animals was pushing the stones away to lick the salty whiz that was on the surface. All animals need salt. In fact, when I lived up north, moose were a real hazard when they got onto the winter roads to lick the salt off from snow removal.

So, now I'm thinking that could very well be what this is. I know it looks like an air blast from truck brakes but spots are too random, some aren't fully round and they are where trucks can't go. Plus, no trucks were in the yard.

So, either birds dusting or animals licking for salt. That's my current thinking.

 

[LD1]

Following

Who doesnt like a good mystery.

I was gonna say it looks exactly like something with air brakes, but you have already said that wasnt it.

I dunno...I like the skunk licking dog pee theory....lol

 

[deezler]

Skunks licking up old dog pee? Making odd circles in the gravel drive? This forum is the best. Rural living at its finest, lol

 

[woody]

I have some that looks like that today and my wife was blowing leaves out of the driveway yesterday, could it be?

 

[MossRoad]

Following

Who doesnt like a good mystery.

I was gonna say it looks exactly like something with air brakes, but you have already said that wasnt it.

I dunno...I like the skunk licking dog pee theory....lol

Wasn't that a grunge band in the 80s?

 

[Richard]

Skunks licking up old dog pee?

Wait til we hear what his raccoons are up to.....

 

[Fuddy1952]

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