20040125

I've found my coyote, alright

Swen offers the Cherry Creek Country Club as a good opportunity to take a coyote. A heartfelt thanks!

However, I've got one practically out the front door where I work. Four times in the last thirty days I've spotted a strapping lad who works his way from the prairie of Buckley AFB, over to the flightline to thin down the rabbits and prairie dogs among Colorado ANG's F-16 sheds.

He usually shows up at dusk, when the only lawful dynamic human-wildlife interface in that area, Fuji ASA 400 in a Canon T50 with an f/3.8 150mm lens, will barely reach him. He also understands very well that photography is prohibited on the flightline, so I have to catch him in the open before he crosses into it.

I've got about 8 exposures of him so far, and if exercises and Distinguished Visitors weren't getting in the way, I might have resorted to camping out in the upstairs latrine at Building 909 with a tripod and the doubler on the lens.

Update: I heard a pack of them yipping after midnight chow last night. Reminded me of the song "Me just a Worthless Coyote" from the Hank the Cowdog children's books. And e-Claire has had her own encounter with 'yotes.
Update 2: The photos are in. The dusk photos were badly underexposed. However, I caught one as he appeared at high noon near where they were singing a few nights before.