Trail Cam Capture

Yesterday, at 4:52 AM, this pair of coyotes cruised past our back fence.

Contest!

See if you can be the first person to identify something odd about the second raccoon in the video below.

Look hard, have fun!

We have a winner!  My sister Sarah was the first to notice the missing tail.  I hope to see him on the camera again, doing OK.

Coyote Eating a Gopher

Today, we hiked the Santa Ysabel  Preserve, about an hour plus drive east of Carlsbad.  We had the trail to ourselves until a group of about 12 young female prisoners came upon us with one Cal Fire woman supervisor.  They were a merry, friendly group in their orange jumpsuits, apparently enjoying being outside and training for the upcoming fire season.  Near the end of our hike we saw a woman with her dog intently watching something.  It turned out to be a coyote that had been curiously following them at a distance.  The story in pictures:

 Future firefighters going over the hill.

We had lunch under an Engleman Oak.  I noticed what looked to be more than a random assortment of boulders.  My hunch is that this is the remains of a Kumeyaay rock structure to cache food.

Coyote Sequence

 A coyote in the wild is a beautiful creature.

 Hmmm... something looks interesting over there.

 Stop to check what the humans are doing.

 Yum, I just caught a big fat gopher!  (Unfortunately, I lowered my camera just as it did a beautiful coyote pounce on the gopher).

 I better crush this gopher up a little so I can swallow it easier.

 But I'm keeping my eyes on those humans and that dog.

 I swallowed it whole, how about that!

Well, off to see what else is moving around.  Yip yip yip!