Coyote Yipps

Well, it’s not exactly a watering hole, but I’ve named it that because a number of animals pass through here, and there are a number of houses up the hill which I know have dripping spigots which may be the attraction. But in addition, there’s an accumulation of bones in the area: beef bones and chicken bones, so there may be more up the hill where these come from.

Noises from screeching hawks and squawking ravens in this spot gave me the idea to set out a field camera. I seldom use these cameras, but I had a couple lying around from last Spring, so I set one up.  Indeed, soon afterwards the camera caught images of these raptors, so I left it out for several weeks, and even caught one coyote passing through! The only other animals I caught were dogs: they sniffed around, urinated, and took bones — and then the camera was stolen.

I was reluctant to try again, but decided to put out the other camera only at night when it was less likely to be taken. I put it out only sometimes, and sometimes I captured critters. I would have liked to have caught some owls, which, by leaving the camera out at night I was hoping for — both Great Horned AND Barn Owls are seen regularly close by. But this did not happen. What I did catch were opossums, skunks, raccoons and more coyotes. The spot where I placed the camera forms a narrow passage, a kind of bottle-neck, which animals appear to traipse through rather quickly and uneventfully, but a number of times they’ve lingered long enough to display some behaviors, which is why I’m posting this. The best is at the end, I think, where a feisty little skunk first gets spooked by a twig it steps on, and then not only fights with another skunk, but also charges at a coyote! 

Both dogs and coyotes have enjoyed “marking” the area repeatedly with their urine: they’re all trumping each other. The coyote chewing on the bone was kind of fun — right there in front of the camera: just like any dog might do. And there’s a short clip of a coyote “burying” something — maybe a bone? — by brushing the ground with its snout.

I’ve put these short clips together and called them “The Watering Hole” euphemistically, because I didn’t want to call it “the bottleneck” or “the bone dump.”  “Watering hole” is usually where the elephants and lions fill up on water in Africa, but it’s also what a bar or pub is called, where individuals might pass through during the wee hours of the night for a nightcap of some sort, like here!