Dogs and wildlife

As many of you know, I love being out at sunrise and sunset. One thing I love about it is the "magic light" for photography. I find the light to be almost mystical, with the spotlights of sun surrounded by the darkness of the forest.

So, Shyla and I do our morning outing around sunrise, and the Duo and I are out around sunset. I'm so happy that R can now walk far enough to join the sunset hikes.

One downside to these times for being outdoors is active wildlife. For us, the most common issue is coyotes. Because there are many coyotes and their habitat overlaps with where humans love to be, they worry me more than mountain lions. As soon as we get close to a meadow, I get both dogs on leash, and I scan it for coyotes.

The other day, like many days recently, I spotted a coyote right away. Do you see him lying in the snow in the photo below?

As Shyla and I hiked that morning, the coyote started trotting in parallel to us. Shyla was on leash but expressed absolutely no interest in charging after the coyote, a fact that made me very happy.

As we hiked, the coyote stopped frequently to check us out - while keeping a pretty constant distance from us.

Finally, he went behind a boulder and started barking. At first, it was much like a dog bark and then it became a yip/howl. We stood a distance away, and I recorded his song. However, I discovered that I moved the camera around so much during the video that you'd get sea-sick watching it so I won't share it here.

After his song, the coyote retraced his steps back toward where he'd started. I'm not sure what the display was all about - except perhaps to tell his pack-mates that we were in the meadow.

Neighbors are saying how much more often they see coyotes in the meadows this year than in the past, and I think that the reason might be that there are two new houses on the edges of meadow. It appears that the coyotes' normal secretive routes through the sparse tree groves and boulder-strewn areas in the meadow have been blocked by the houses and outbuildings. For the foreseeable future, I think my dogs will be staying on leash in the meadows. Perhaps the coyotes will figure out new secretive routes as time goes on.

It's okay with me to leash my dogs in the meadows. I believe in figuring out how we and the wildlife can accommodate each other and share the natural world. I can still enjoy sunrise and sunset without my dogs romping in the meadows. Recently, the sunset light has been glorious, and we've been soaking it up.

To close, I want to thank you all for your supportive comments yesterday. I am still in a migraine-induced haze today, and I've decided to try to limit my computer time and rest more for a little while. I need to break this cycle of migraines, and there's a remote chance that will help. I'm going to try to keep my posts shorter, and I may not visit blogs quite as regularly. I apologize in advance but it should be temporary.