"GUESS I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE SO INTENT ON NAVIGATING THE LANDSCAPE"

Coyote - 6 Photos

Note: All photos taken from a safe distance, with a long lens. 

Looking for wildlife can entail travelling through meadows full of tall grasses, which can cover small gnawed stumps at ground level. (Generally these stumps are remnants from beaver activity.) So it's repeatedly looking down, briefly looking up for wildlife & then back down before arriving at a destination clear of shrubbery.  This can be particularly pertinent in Winter when adding in snow cover.

So I had safely arrived at my destination, sat down close to a recently thawed pond and hoping for some beaver activity later in the afternoon. Had been there some time when from the meadow I could see a coyote shape approaching from within the grasses. He/she soon found a small clear path and proceeded to the pond, nose to the ground probably catching scents and keeping an eye on the terrain for prey.

And it was good fortune for me that I had my back to the afternoon sun and the coyote was moving towards the west. So it wasn't until he/she had cleared the meadow that I was spotted (Photo #1 through Photo #3). Got that "darn, busted look" and then there were a few seconds while the coyote paused and had a re-think of how to negotiate a path back to better cover.

I remained seated and waited. There was a path on a lower level that ran parallel to where I sat & eventually the coyote decided better to negotiate the second path, avoiding me but saving valuable time by not retracing his/her steps. 

It was done at that "get a move on" speed but as the coyote cleared some of the grasses, I managed to catch a few photos of his/her passage (Photo #4 through Photo #6). 

PHOTO #1

PHOTO #2

PHOTO #3

PHOTO #4

PHOTO #5

PHOTO #6