Boulder County Farm Dog versus Wile E. Coyote

While I live in Suburbia, there are some trails and farmlands nearby that make for enjoyable walks and misc. nature viewing. One night, my wife Wendy took my oldest son Dirk to the library, and called on her Cell Phone, saying she had seen a large bird in a Cottenwood Tree owl nest that is nearby. So 7-year old Kyle and I decided to walk over to check it out. I grabbed my camera ... while Kyle carried the tripod which he decided was a "bazooka" (see last picture) and proceeded to pretend to shoot everything in sight - boys will be boys! ;-) So we get to the Cottonwood tree and there is no bird in the nest. I suggest to Kyle that we bushwhack to the next grove of trees where there is another nest, but once again, we are skunked - no birds. Heck, there's hardly anything flying around and I'm bummed, since it is 6:40PM and the light is beautiful from the setting sun. And then I catch a fleeting glimpse of something moving in the brush ahead as seen in picture #1. We occasionally see foxes (sometimes even in our backyard), but Coyote's are much rarer, and usually just seen briefly at a distance. While he keeps a close eye on me (see picture #2), he seems content to amble on, so we quietly follow, letting him set the pace. We do holler out one time when a family is on a nearby bike path, but fortunately, that doesn't spook him. Eventually, the coyote gets interested in some prairie dogs located on some farmland ... but on the other side of a fence. However, as he moves that direction, I notice a blur of motion from the left - a couple of farms dogs have arrived to defend their territory! While the German Shepard is content to watch, the Yellow Lab springs into action and after a brief "battle", the coyote high-tails it out there. I was watching this through the camera and fired off about a dozen shots in three (yes, three) seconds - a few of 'em are here and the entire Dog versus Coyote battle can be can be seen here. So there was no prairie dog dinner for Mr. Coyote that night - it was kind of sad seeing him slink away at the end as shown in the second to last picture. But Kyle and I had a great show and we got a chuckle out of showing my Wife the pictures - "there was no bird in the nest Mom, but you might like seeing these other ones!" My wife is really into animals (she works at an Adventure Travel Company) and last year, we had a very close-up encounter with larger canines at the Mission Wolf sanctuary. So when our family is on longer car drives (especially in the mountains), Wendy encourages the kids to look for animals. As an incentive, she offers 'em $10 if they see a Bear, $10 if they see a Mountain Lion, and $100 if they are fighting. She hasn't had to pay up for this yet ... but Kyle thinks that seeing a Dog and Coyote duke it out is worth something, especially since we even have pictures of it! ;-) Photography Notes: These pictures were taken with a Canon 40D which has a 1.6x crop factor with a 55-250 lens attached - i.e. a 35mm equivalent of 400mm, and I wish I had even more reach. While the zoom lens and image cropping make it appear I was fairly close, I was actually about a 100 yards away the entire time as I let the Coyote set the pace and followed at what seemed a comfortable distance for him. BTW, the next night I did see the birds my wife mentioned ... turns out they were Red Tailed Hawks.

I catch a fleeting glimpse of something moving through the brush ahead

Mr. Coyote is REALLY keeping an eye on me

I decide it's best to holler and let the family on bikes know about the coyote, even if it spooks him

I quickly zoom out the camera as we have company!

The Yellow Lab closes in as the German Shepard stays back and just watches - he never jumps in

The Yellow Lab continues his "assault" and jumps after 'em

Coyote high-tailin' it outa there!

The chase is on since the Coyote is still on the Farmland side of the fence

Coyote goes back underneath fence and the Lab has successfully defended the farmland!

No Prairie Dog dinner for Mr. Coyote tonight - was kinda sad to see him walk off like this

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