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!