Coyote closeup, Miner

Today featured an interesting "walk" in which I mostly didn't walk at all. The excursion, an actual hayride, took place at my old stomping ground, the Miner Preserve, and had me riding a tractor-pulled wagon that was filled with kids and their parents and grandparents. We also had a folk-singer on board, and the two of us took turns working the crowd. My job, of course, was to inform folks about the natural history of the Preserve—I also did my share of singing—and no sooner had I scanned the newly shorn Miner hayfield than I noticed a very calm Eastern Coyote on patrol in the distance. Before the riding started, I pointed the animal out to the crowd then walked closer for a better picture, but I was never able to get more than about 100 yards away. Would that I had a cannon for a lens! But on our fourth ride, the last of the day, with a smallish crew that included several kids, the coyote seemed to have gotten used to us and just continued working the field. The tractor got closer and closer, but the handsome canid kept searching for food. When we were no more than 20 feet away, she—I'm pretty sure this is a female—headed off into the underbrush, but not before everyone onboard got the look of a lifetime.