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I was off on my own on a rainy spring day when I spotted this coyote through a tunnel of green grass, a look I love, and had a few seconds before it slipped into the tall grass. At first glance I thought there might be something wrong with it, it seemed gaunt with patchy fur. But on closer look its fur was soaked and clinging to its skin, and a look at its belly made me wonder if it had recently given birth.
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Coyote Q&A
Q: Do coyotes chew with their mouths closed? A: No. No they don’t. Coyotes are very expressive chewers, they work their prey over with wide open chomps before finally swallowing it. This one is eating a Townsend’s vole at Ridgefield NWR. |
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Scouting Report
Normally I visit Ridgefield without a specific agenda in mind, but on this day I went under strict orders from Ellie to scout out her competition in the Greater Ridgefield Hedgehog Invitational. She had nothing to worry about. Now when it comes time for the Townsend's Vole Catching Competition, on the other hand …
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Howl
When I pulled up to the observation blind on the auto tour, I noticed this coyote standing a little farther up the road. It wasn't in a very photogenic location, so I got out of the car and instead of taking pictures, we just watched each other for a while. Eventually it sauntered up the road, occasionally turning back to watch me, before disappearing around the bend.
I didn't expect to see it again and continued the short trail to the blind. When I continued on up the road, I came across the coyote again near the parking lot to the Kiwa Trail. I continued to the far side of the lot to get better lighting for pictures then gently swung the car into place so I could take pictures from the car and not disturb the coyote. The coyote was comfortable with my presence as it checked out the area while I took pictures. It was a pretty nice moment but about to get even better: the coyote began to howl. It howled a few times, unanswered, then slipped through the gate across the trailhead and disappeared up the trail. |
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Oh Well, It Was Worth a Shot
I was watching a great blue heron on a foggy and frosty winter’s morning, it was close to the road and quite comfortable with my presence as I photographed it from the car. Suddenly the heron took flight, making an angry call for having been disturbed.
I was taken aback to see this coyote bounding out of the fog, as they don’t normally even try to pursue the cautious birds. The heavy fog gives the coyotes cover they don’t normally have, and I saw another coyote take a Canada goose in the blinding gray. This coyote, though, didn’t seem too disappointed that his prey got away so cleanly, it seemed an attack of opportunity as the coyote chanced across the heron as it crossed the refuge. |
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Pounce
Foxes and coyotes will often pounce on their prey, swiftly and silently closing on their target. This coyote was hunting voles early one morning in a large field. It didn’t catch the vole on the pounce but was not easily dissuaded. It kept nosing around in the grass and eventually began to paw into the earth. I saw the coyote catch four voles during the morning, and in each case, once it started digging into the ground, it always captured its prize.
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Some of My Favorite Things
I was watching this coyote late one spring day but couldn't quite figure out what it was doing as it was mostly obscured in the tall grass. At first, I assumed it was hunting for voles, as I've seen other coyotes do in these fields. However, it kept carrying the animals it was catching over to one spot and then coming back for more. No coyote hunts voles that sucessfully, so then I thought perhaps it was ferrying its pups from one spot to another. When I saw it eat one of the animals it was carrying I knew it wasn't carrying pups, and my third guess at what was happening turned out to be the correct one.
The natural world is a harsh one and one of the consequences is that some of my favorite creatures eat some of my favorite creatures. What I came to realize was that this coyote had found a den of rabbits and was catching all of the baby bunnies and storing them in a nearby cache, while eating a couple herself. I watched with mixed fascination and horror as the coyote bounded through the grass and landed on her prey, even as I could hear the surviving bunnies shrieking in alarm. |
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Cycle of Life
The coyote eventually came out of the tall grasses not far from where I was standing carrying one of the dead bunnies in her mouth. She might have have been taking the little rabbits back to feed her own, one mother's children dying to feed another's.
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