"TRAINING GROUND"

Coyote - 9 Photos

And I thought they couldn't get much smaller.

From the ridge came the two adolescent coyotes, most likely the two that generally hunt & socialize together, the larger being male, the smaller - female. And then an even smaller coyote followed them down at speed. The first two charged off across the meadow, leaving the third behind to forage on her/his own. Perhaps teenagers are the same everywhere, no one wants the younger brother/sister tagging along & slowing them down.

Eventually, the third coyote, who I've named EmCee or MC for Mini Coyote, (Photo #1) moved on and across the meadow searching for mice and voles (Photo #2 through Photo #3 ).

And then came that iconic moment, when a coyote sits down & takes a few minutes to rest & evaluate the situation before moving on (Photo #4 through Photo #7). I would love to be party to the workings of a coyote's brain as to what thoughts are being processed. And I don't know what caused the coyote to look up. It may have been bird movement in a nearby tree or perhaps there was the inaudible sound by human hearing of older siblings giving notice of where they could be located.

No matter, rest time now complete, it was back to business and MC headed off in the direction where the other two had disappeared but with nose down & ears alert never losing an opportunity to score a meal (Photo #8 & Photo #9).

PHOTO #1

PHOTO #2

PHOTO #3

PHOTO #4

PHOTO #5

PHOTO #6

PHOTO #7

PHOTO #8

PHOTO #9