Tag Archives: coyote

Today We Are Brothers

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The Hunters7833Coyote and Badger hunting together Yellowstone

A long time ago before the first people came out of the ground to live on top of the earth, there were other people here that inhabited this place. They were animal people but people just the same. They had spirits and knew their place. They could not walk on two legs but then they weren’t supposed to because they were animals and each was made for the thing they would do best. They could talk and reason and they each had special powers that made them unique.

The coyote was the trickster, the song dog, the clever one and he was very good at telling stories and making the other animals like him. But he also did things that the other people didn’t like such as taking their food while they were laughing at his stories. He did not like to work and used his brain to make his way through life.

The badger was called the digger, and the fighter, for he was very fierce and very strong even if he was small. He thought of nothing but digging in the earth to find the little ones he liked to eat even if it took him all day. Sometimes he would dig and dig and the little ones would run away out of the back door of their homes. They had those doors just in case the badger would try and catch them. This would make the badger very angry and he would fight anyone who came near him. The other people left him alone and before long he became surly and didn’t care about anyone or anything but catching and eating the little ones.

The coyote had watched the badger for a long time. He saw how he would dig and how often the little ones would run away and the badger would go hungry. He thought he saw a way that he could benefit from the badgers efforts but it would require getting the badger to trust him and not fight him. He talked to the badger, but always from a safe distance, you could not trust the badger because he was always hungry and everything is a meal to the badger, even a coyote. He told him stories of other badgers who had friends that would help them hunt and these badgers were always full and satisfied and had time to find a mate and have families.

The badger slowly began to think about what the coyote was saying. It took him a while because his powers were digging and fighting, not thinking, Thinking was hard for him and usually just made him angrier. But soon he was thinking of a mate and having young badgers around him to show how to dig up and eat the little ones. He began to trust the coyote and asked how this could be possible.

The coyote who you can see, was very persuasive, told the badger of a plan where he, being very swift, would chase the little ones into their holes in the ground where the badger could dig them out. Then the coyote would quickly run to the back door and catch the little ones as they tried to run away. If the little ones saw the coyote sitting there as they tried to flee they would stop and go back down into their burrows where soon the badger, who had been using his great strength to dig, would find them and eat them. If the little ones didn’t see the coyote lurking near their back door and ran out into the meadow the coyote would quickly snatch them up and eat them.

As the badger took much longer to dig down and find the little ones, they had more opportunity to try and escape, and the coyote would have more opportunity to catch them with little or no effort. But the badger was also getting more little ones and thought that the coyotes plan was a very good one even though the coyote seemed to be getting the biggest share of the food. He was tricked into thinking this was a good plan by the artful story telling of the coyote.

So that is why even today, long after the original agreement between the badger and the coyote began, long after the first people came up into the sunshine to live on the top of the earth, you will sometimes see the badger and the coyote work together. Both seem well pleased with the bargain, although I think the coyote may be a little more pleased than the badger.

The Lurker

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The Lurker5047Coyote Yellowstone                            click to enlarge

If you were a mouse, or a vole, or even a ground squirrel, and I am in no way suggesting you are, you would have a vastly different life. You’d be a lot smaller and quite a bit hairier and you would be constantly preoccupied with eating. Now even if that description fits some of you and of course I am in no way suggesting it does, you’d have one more concern to keep in mind.

And that would be The Lurker. The Lurker is that ominous presence that is always just out of sight, but you know it’s there, waiting, waiting, and well, lurking, back there in the shadows ready to get you. And the getting of you is the deal. If you get got it is game over. No more rustling in the grass, no more squeaking with pleasure when you find those new green grass shoots, that’s it. Conclude-o.

Now if you are that small little rodent busily eating your way to oblivion and you are not paying attention to the first rule of rodent survival which is “Never get far from your den” and the second rule, which is “Don’t chew with your mouth open” and the third rule which is “Remember the Lurker” then you are in for what is known in the rodent world as a really ugly day. There are no “Hey wait” or “Listen I just stepped out here for a smoke and some fresh green grass shoots” or “Who’s going to feed my cat” it is simply Bite, snap, gulp, and Next ! and the lurker is on his way.

So this is a reminder to all the little hairy, grass munching, squeaky little rodents out there, keep your blue cross up to date, sometimes the Lurker misses, and when you get to that comfortable just full feeling, stop eating, and finally, send your Mother-in-law out there first, the mean one, to see if the lurker is nearby. You just might get lucky.

He Ain’t Heavy

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HeAintHeavy986Coyote Pups Yellowstone                   click to enlarge

He ain’t heavy, He’s my brother. The refrain from that song plays in my head every time I look at this picture. Spring in Yellowstone means family. The animal world has figured out how to make sure all the creatures get their young born at the best possible time to ensure their survival as individuals, and as a species. So when spring breaks get out-of-the-way because everything that’s going to have young ones is having them.

Besides being a good survival technique its good for photographers too. If you watch what’s going on and keep a sharp eye open you’ll soon be stumbling all over animal kids. You’ll be knee deep in coyote puppies, elk calves, BIghorn sheep lambs, Osprey chicks, antelope fawns, badger babies, every single specie that has two or more members of the opposite sex present will be having offspring.

These coyote pups were born in a small cave in a rock outcropping that was literally 3-4′ from one of the main roads in Yellowstone, not far from a major tourist lookout point at Gibbon Falls. Thousands of cars went by it every day. Thousands of cars wasn’t an exaggeration as the road past Gibbon Falls is a main portion of the loop road that rings the park. If you’re coming up from Old Faithful on the West side of the park you can’t get North to Mammoth or East over to the Hayden Valley without travelling on this road and passing by this family’s home. Within several feet of it actually.

It was amazing how few people saw these guys playing in their front yard, goofing off, waiting for mom to show up with lunch. Photographers saw them though. This coyote den wasn’t too far from a pullout and every day until mom finally got tired of the traffic and noise and moved everybody to a better neighborhood, the pullout would fill up with photographers vehicles and everyone would trudge up the road to set up for the days shoot.

Of course as soon as the tripods and long glass came out the cars going by would slow, their windows rolled down and the tourist’s lament would come forth, “Hey Whatcha lookin at?” Coyotes ” Those puppies?” Yep. “They look like dogs” No answer. “What are they doing?” Sleeping. “Sleeping? Do they do anything else?” No answer. “Have you seen any Elk?” No, we’re watching coyotes. “Well they ain’t doin nothing.” No answer. “Is this all you guys do all day?” Yep. And off they’d go in a flurry of squealing tires and loud music, a look of total disbelief on their face that grown people would spend the entire day watching sleeping puppies. Occasional there would be a brake light if somebody thought they’d seen an elk but mostly it was pedal to the metal to get to the next thing to see.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this approach to visiting the park. People experience life the way they want to. We can get all evangelistic about it and try to show them the error of their ways ( at least as we think it should be ) but when everything is said and done, if they’re happy so what. They’ll figure things out eventually. In the mean time I’m busy watching sleeping puppies.

Animal Portraits

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AnimalPortraits0665Coyote    Escalante                                                    click to enlarge

Every once in a while we try something new here at the blog and this is one of those times. From time to time I’m going to feature one of my animal portraits that will be included in a new forth coming eBook named, coincidentally enough, Animal Portraits. I’ll give you some background about the animal and how the shot was made without getting too technical thereby causing you to roll your head back uncontrollably as you pass out from boredom. Many a knot on the head and/or a chipped tooth has happened because of boredom. I promise to be careful.

Each portrait will show not just what the animal looks like, documentary style like the picture of the bull elk standing 3/4 bugling that you’ve seen 100 times, but more what the animal is ‘like’. It’s character, its personality, where it lives, what it does, who it  likes to hang out with, what it likes to eat, everything that shows what makes that animal unique. Sometimes it will just be a study letting you put the story to the picture.

This portrait is of a coyote that happened to be frequenting the roadside in an area of Arizona known as The Neck. The Neck is a very cool stretch of highway in the Escalante area of Arizona with steep drop offs on either side and a view that goes on forever. Many people use it for its primary function of getting you from here to there and I did too, but I paid special attention to my surroundings in the hope that there would be that more than special image happening. After all it isn’t often that you can drive a narrow highway high in the sky and look down a thousand feet on either side of the road. Slow is good here because while beautiful it is terribly unforgiving of any error.

What animals lack in human speech they more than make up for in expression, body language and emotion. It is hard to tell exactly what this guy is thinking but you know he’s thinking something. He had obviously been given handouts by travelers as he was cautious and expectant but not afraid when I stopped to ask him directions. It was also clear that he expected some sort of payment and when I didn’t provide it he began considering me in a different light.

That is what made his portrait important for me and why I am considering adding it the book. Not that he was just considering this cheapskate that had stopped for reasons unknown, after all, if he didn’t want to feed me, or shoot me, what the hell did he want, but that he was interested and curious enough to put some thought into it. Not to get too Disney about this but look at that face. There’s something going on in there. Maybe this picture works for me because he’s made me curious about him too.

Who Watches The Watcher

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WhoWatchesWatcher9947click to enlarge

A pair of golden eyes peering out of the darkness betrays this watcher. Thinking it is invisible it stares with steady concentration, trying to assess what your threat probability is. Should he make his presence known or continue to hide and observe. The decision here could have a life or death result. He is asking himself the question “What is an acceptable level of risk?”

The dictionary says that an acceptable level of risk is the level of risk that is tolerable in a given situation. If the watcher feels that it is relatively safe standing still and observing then that is its acceptable level of risk. If whoever is watching the watcher feels his acceptable level of risk is to stay still so he doesn’t get bitten, then they are both at their maximum tolerance for risk. It’s a standoff until somebody blinks. Then its every coyote or photographer for themselves. In this case it was a stare down and the coyote won. A guy can stand in the middle of a busy road staring at a bush just so long and then hopefully common sense kicks in and you realize that it’s ok for the coyote to win one. But then I got the picture so maybe I won after all.

Yellow Flowers

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YellowFlowers2click  to enlarge

One of my titles as a working photographer is “Nature Photographer”. Loosely translated it means a guy that shoots stuff in Nature that is part of Nature and not part of some non-nature place like the 5 Boroughs. Not that there is anything wrong with the 5 boroughs that a HFA of nature wouldn’t cure, but some folks simply don’t need Nature or even like it. OK for them.

There is a lot of space out there that surrounds non-nature places and it has got to be filled up with something, otherwise everywhere else would just look like Detroit. Much of what was used to fill up all the other space that wasn’t concrete, was growing stuff, or plants, to use a scientific term, and some of those plants have become known as flowers. As there are still some people who don’t realize that flowers in all their many shapes, sizes and colors are part of Nature, it is my job to photograph them in all their glory so those folks can see them and be impressed with not only flowers themselves, but Nature in general. What they don’t realize though is the many difficulties faced by the photographer in pursuit of that endeavor.

First of many problems is just finding flowers, they just don’t grow on trees you know, wait, some of them do actually, I forgot about that, but you get my drift. They can occasionally be difficult to locate so when you do find some you need to be ready to shoot them immediately because you never know how long they’re going to be there. Some big stupid-hoofed ungulate may come along and just eat them. Then all you have left is stems and what good is that? Nothing I tell you so shoot’em when you see them.

Another problem is one that is of a more technical nature, a complication or a botheration if you will, and that is the auto-focus used on cameras today. A short explanation of the problem is this. There is a tiny little wizard, more like a genie really, that lives in your camera and he never gets to come out, not ever, and that can make him peckish at times. In Nikon cameras it is always a male genie. I think Canon has a female one but I’m not sure as I don’t shoot Canon stuff. His job is to look at the scene you have selected in your view finder then after making some sarcastic remark like “What, you’re going to shoot that? Are you nuts, that looks like a dog’s breakfast.” etc., and he always has an accent like one of the guys on that car show on NPR. That is so freaking annoying. He then picks out something within the image area you’ve selected and arbitrarily makes up his own mind on what he thinks should be in sharp focus. The fact that he is leaving the really important feature in your shot completely out of focus doesn’t seem to bother him in the least. He can be quite obstinate in his selection and will occasionally need a stern talking to where you explain to him exactly ‘where the bear crapped in the buckwheat’ and what will happen to his little decision-making apparatus if he doesn’t straighten the hell up and focus on what you want to shoot. Sometimes if he really doesn’t want to listen to reason, banging the camera he lives in against a rock a few times will loosen him up to where he feels cooperative again. It also makes me feel a lot better.

Unfortunately in the shot above the yellow flowers, which were quite lovely by the way, were left out of focus but their buttery yellow color was so gorgeous I felt the need to share them with you. It is my hope that you can see past the distractions and appreciate this little bit of Nature in all it’s glory. I guess I’m just a flower child at heart. Now if you would excuse me I need to have a conversation with my camera again.

Out of Frame

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OutofFrame1984click to enlarge

When you start getting close to animals, close enough that they begin to ignore you, things become apparent that you don’t notice unless you’re in a blind or watching them from a distance through glasses. Little mannerisms appear, like how they cock their heads before they pounce, or the way their ears can droop when they realize they may be in trouble but don’t know where that trouble may be coming from. The personal characteristics that make that animal unique, a coyote acts like a coyote because of the very characteristics that make him one. If that sounds like a simple statement it is, some of this stuff isn’t that hard.

Sometimes those characteristics aren’t seen because you haven’t gotten close enough to them yet. Not close as in distance, close as in understanding. You have to put your time in and absorb everything he’s showing you. I had spent several hours or so with this guy as he wandered around near a campground in Yellowstone, sniffing the ground around the tables, watching for scraps, half-heartedly trying to catch a vole in the high grass and slowly using up the afternoon. The setting sun began turning everything gold and shimmery, the air got still and the shadows darkened preparing for twilight when something off in the distance made him suddenly aware. The easy-going behavior was suddenly gone. It could have been a grizzly, or worse, wolves, because wolves kill coyotes just because they’re coyotes, or perhaps just another coyote checking out his territory. Whatever it was it changed things.  He wasn’t just hanging out spending an afternoon anymore. Now things became different, more dangerous, as they do when night approaches and that brought out the serious side of being a coyote. It’s all about staying alive and getting to tomorrow so you can hunt again, feed the kids, spend time with the mate, the usual stuff.

This is one of those stories that doesn’t have an end, I never found out what was out of frame, or what the rest of the story was. But that happens a lot in life, you don’t always know the answers. I was just happy to be a small part of his day and I wasn’t really concerned with what was out there. Coyotes have been around for a long time and when things go wrong they have a habit of nearly always landing jam side up. It would be cool if we could mind-read though, wouldn’t it? I might have been a little untruthful there a moment ago when I said I didn’t care what was out there, I do, I would really, really like to know the rest of the story.