Nature Watching
One of the best things about living out here is all the wildlife we get to watch. I’ve always loved watching different animals. I’d stay up late and watch out my window and watch whatever I could see. Tonight, after I put the youngest to bed, I heard her yelling. She had spotted a bunny sitting in the trees. Here’s a photo I took in January just so you can see how far away it was. Plus it was dark so I was impressed with her spotting abilities.
So we (me, both kids and the husband) were huddled around the dark window staring at the bunny when all of the sudden, from where that clump of weeds are (our pump-out for the sewer system) we see a coyote trotting out. It strolled towards the house so my husband ran to another room, opened the window and yelled at it. It ran back to the weeds and hid. After about 5 minutes it trotted off through the field, away from the house. Guess I’m back to walking the dog with the knife!!
To be honest, I’m not as afraid of a coyote than I am with say, a moose. With a predator, they fight to eat. With a prey animal, they fight for their lives. If you can convince a predator that you are more work to kill than it is worth, they will give up. A prey animal won’t give up until it knows you are no longer a threat. And in the case of a moose, one swift kick and you are not coming back. I can kick a coyote long hard enough for it to run away but there is nothing I can do against a moose.
But still, it was quite the sight to see that coyote appear from nowhere and walk into our yard. Oh, and I guess the bunny took off because I didn’t see him after all that excitement.
So we (me, both kids and the husband) were huddled around the dark window staring at the bunny when all of the sudden, from where that clump of weeds are (our pump-out for the sewer system) we see a coyote trotting out. It strolled towards the house so my husband ran to another room, opened the window and yelled at it. It ran back to the weeds and hid. After about 5 minutes it trotted off through the field, away from the house. Guess I’m back to walking the dog with the knife!!
To be honest, I’m not as afraid of a coyote than I am with say, a moose. With a predator, they fight to eat. With a prey animal, they fight for their lives. If you can convince a predator that you are more work to kill than it is worth, they will give up. A prey animal won’t give up until it knows you are no longer a threat. And in the case of a moose, one swift kick and you are not coming back. I can kick a coyote long hard enough for it to run away but there is nothing I can do against a moose.
But still, it was quite the sight to see that coyote appear from nowhere and walk into our yard. Oh, and I guess the bunny took off because I didn’t see him after all that excitement.
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