What an experience this morning! I headed out early to a
northeast gate, the temps were in the forties and it felt good not to wear
heavy cloths.
My plan was to visit the shoreline and sit for a while hoping
to see a coyote walking the last ice in search of food.
I could not have found a better location to watch. I looked
right down the reservoir and nothing going on, or flying overhead. I looked
left and I’ll be darned, a coyote was moving at a pretty good slip. Why?
Several hundred yards in front of the coyote a deer was
running for an island shoreline. How neat is that! The deer is going to win this hunt!
WRONG!!
For whatever reason the deer did not jump into the wood line.
Instead it hangs a 90 degree turn and continued running on the ice. The coyotes
course turned diagonally towards the deer and it was a short chase before coyote
grabbed the deer by the leg.
Although distant, my binoculars and camera provided a
detailed sequence of events.
The few hours after the kill I watched a coyote pack take
turns feeding while crows and two eagles waited for their opportunity.
What an experience to whiteness. Mother Nature at its hardest.
Jim
