Sunset, snowbike, and a coyote hunts

Yesterday's evening walk was a bit crazed because the dogs were so hyped about all the wildlife activity. Within 50 yards of the house, we found the remains of a Flicker, a beautiful woodpecker, who I suspect was killed and eaten by a raptor. In another quarter mile, we spotted a pack of coyotes huddled in an aspen grove in the middle of our meadow.

As you might guess, I decided that the dogs would remain leashed or under very tight control for the hike. I unhitched K briefly for a photo with the moon rising behind her.

And, when we turned to the west, we witnessed a gorgeous sunset, complete with coyotes yipping in the distance.

Although the dogs enjoy hikes when they can romp off-leash the very best, sometimes we have to make concessions to Mother Nature to keep the wildlife and the dogs safe. That was the story yesterday evening.

This morning, I decided to make an attempt at riding my snowbike on our trails. It was moderately successful. K and I found about 1.5 miles of trail that we'd packed down with snowshoes to be passable.

The wind howled like a jet engine off the Continental Divide, whipping K's ears and the pogies on my handlebars with each gust. K didn't like the flapping of my pogies and gave my bike the evil eye.

In one sun-soaked spot, I glimpsed purple as I rode by. It was one of our Pasqueflowers who had survived the 15" of wet and heavy snow. It looked a bit bedraggled but I was filled with wonder at the the resilience of these mountain flowers.

All too soon, I dropped K off at home, and I headed out on the roads to spin away my back spasms. As I departed, I noticed icicles under our deck inexorably melting, one drop at a time.

As I flew down a gulch with the formidable wind at my back, I saw that a small pond had melted and formed a beautiful reflecting pool.

Later in my ride, as I pedaled past an expansive meadow, I spotted four coyotes all trotting toward a pond of open water. They moved in parallel, like a four-pronged attack, although at great distances from each other.

One of them stopped in his tracks, dug into the snow, and then stuck his head underground. Sorry about the lack of zoom - I had only my tiny point-and-shoot camera with me.

As he pulled his head out of the snow, he tossed a rodent into the air. It landed on the snow and began to scurry away from him. You can see it as a dark dot in front of his snout in the photo below.

The coyote calmly grabbed the rodent again. He tossed it into the air, it did several flips and landed behind him. Now it scurried in the opposite direction.

Finally, the game was over, and the coyote delivered the killing shake. He walked slowly, carrying the rodent in his jaws. Then, in one great gulp, the rodent disappeared down his gullet.

I'm not sure why coyotes play with their prey before killing them but I've seen it many times. Perhaps they're celebrating and giving thanks for the meal before eating it. It does seem like it gives their prey a chance to escape... but maybe that's a rare occurrence.

While making the video of the elk jumping the fence the other day, I discovered that the new version of iMovie that came with my upgraded computer is much easier to use than the old version. So, I made videos from a couple of the rapidfire series of still photos that I've captured of mountain lions in the past couple of months. For today, here's the most recent mountain lion photo series in the form of a very short video. You can also watch it here if you have trouble with the embedded video. I hope that you enjoy it.