Coyote with cactus up on a hill San Diego California
Lone coyote up on a hill. He seemed to be looking straight at me, even though we were so far apart.

2020/07/11 – 2 coyote encounters

On the previous day, I had been hiking for a couple of hours and was on my way back when I suddenly heard the yip-yapping of a coyote to my left. It was the first time I heard that sound while hiking. Usually I hear many of them up on the hills at night. Talking about that it, was 7:50 PM and the sun was going down, so the light was not good, and he was far away up the hill. In order for you to appreciate the difficulty of the conditions, I added a picture I took of that hill during the day, and I marked the rectangle where he was. Yes that’s how far he was. I had to use the maximum focal length, 800mm and some editing to get the pics I am showing you here.
Anyway, right after he stopped yip-yapping I heard the reply from far away to my right. I can tell you one thing: these coyotes communicate very well. He got his answer, went quiet, and started moving. It was very clear to me that he was on his way to join his friends on the other side.

Then tonight I went out for my usual after-dinner walk with my wife and stepdaughter. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a coyote crosses the street right in front of us. It happened so fast that I didn’t have time to take a picture (note I always take a camera when going out on walks) so I was a bit annoyed. But he had gone into the side  yard of a house and found out that it was all fenced in so he couldn’t cross over to the hill on the other side. So, he decided to come right back to the street, cross again right in front of us, walked hurriedly around us, and started running away down the street. This time I was ready. These are night pictures with only the streetlight illuminating the scene, so they are a bit grainy.

One comment

  1. catherine summers says:

    I live in NE Ohio. Our coyotes are darker (maybe because they spend so much time in the woods) My son works for the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad. When it is running, the first run of the day sets the canal pack howling.

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