First I noticed one, then two coyotes sitting calmly out on a grassy hill. They were both staring in the same direction — the reason for the staring became apparent when a third coyotes appeared. This was a family group of a mom and two one-year-old pups. When the second pup appeared, the two young ones joyfully ran up the hill to mom as she stretched in anticipation: this is depicted in the first nine photos above. As they neared mom at the top of the hill, one of the pups, the male, held his ears back and went into a crouching — submissive? — position. This one came up towards the mom by coming up under her chin. The three then walked a short ways, rubbed heads and happily hugged in close to each other. I could not see all the details of the interactions because of my distance and the tall grass. Mom then moved out of the picture.
The two younger ones began romping and exploring. Each kept looking at the other: they were very curious about what the other was up to. Finally they romped down the hill where one of them found something that must have looked like fun. This coyote pawed at the object, tossed it in the air a few times and finally pounced on it. I could not tell what the item was except that it was floppy rather than rigid. The other coyote watched, transfixed, but never tried to go for the object. Eventually, without leaving this spot, one of the coyotes sat down and the other one lay down, doing nothing — the play seemed to be over. When they were ready, they got up and meandered into the brush where I could no longer see them.
