Coyote Yipps

Two days ago I saw a very healthy-looking coyote, photo attached. It got a laughing gull off the shore and took it presumably to a den, then returned for more. My two friends were freaked out, although the animal was quite far away from us and wouldn’t have approached us, I’m sure, since it looked very capable and healthy.

But we did tell a group of women coming to the beach with a toddler in a carriage and a lab whom they wanted to let loose to swim in the ocean that they should not let the dog or the kid run around too far. They too freaked out. I’m not sure I’d want a coyote too close to our fenced-in yard where Haggis runs around, but he’s never unsupervised.

Anca generously allowed me to publish her photos and description of her recent coyote encounter. What’s of interest here is how Anca’s two friends reacted: it’s a reaction which is more common than most of us realize. She adds, “Not surprisingly, I went with the same two friends to the Audubon sanctuary in Wellfleet, on Cape Cod where we live, and we had an encounter with what I think was an Eastern hog-nose snake. Again, my friends got very upset about its existence, one saying that there was no reason for snakes to be on earth. I did tell her that I’d take a snake over a rat any day and that we’d be overrun with rodents if not for snakes, but my powers of persuasion were not up to the task. The poor shy snake took off so fast that I didn’t have a chance to get a photo.”

Please let’s all help get information out to folks so that fear doesn’t dominate their wildlife encounters, and so that thrill will! By the way, Anca is a renown writer and poet: please visit her site at: www.vlasopolos.com