Date:

November 3rd, 2006

So shortly after I had posted about my dad and me seeing that fox, my husband claimed to have seen a coyote over by Elm. My reaction was a little bitter perhaps, but who can blame me? Must he always one up? Anyway, how would he even know what a coyote looked like? It was probably just a particularly mangy stray dog or something. Well, within two weeks of his saying so, a coyote (perhaps the very same one) visited our backyard. And ok, I’ll admit, you cannot confuse a coyote for a dog, not if you get a good look at it. I was a little surprised at how small it was, but those legs are NOT dog legs, and neither is that ruff doglike. I was delighted to have it around, too. The coyote seemed to be hanging out by the vegetable garden…maybe he would discourage our rabbit overflow from eating my tomatoes. Not that I don’t love the bunnies, too, but those guys never seem to know when to stop making more bunnies. On any given day you can go out there and count a dozen or so.

I’m perfectly happy to cohabit with predators, specially fuzzy mammalian ones. People were like “In your yard? Look to your daughter!” But seriously, folks, the coyote wouldn’t let us anywhere near him, and it’s roughly half the size of my daughter (who is small for her age). I don’t think it’s going to try and tangle with her. Besides, it hasn’t set up shop here or anything, it was just looking for tasties, I think. Neighbors are of the opinion that it probably lives in the sanctuary that fronts Kirkham near Elm. That’s a great place for it, and I hope it visits us again.

Still about three weeks ago I saw something that topped even that. Now from time to time I do see hawks soaring overhead, but the other morning, pulling in the driveway after dropping Sophia off at school, I saw a giant rapacious bird in my yard. Unlike the coyote, I was surprised about how big this guy was. He immediately flew up into a tree, but I got a gorgeous view of his wings spread wide, less than ten feet away. Wow. I think it was probably a red-tailed hawk, because they are common around here, but I honestly didn’t see his tail at all, totally taken by his wings and his intense eyes instead.

Red Tailed Hawk

There was also the day a couple of months ago when we had to stop on Brentwood because a goose was leading its goslings across the street. So cute! And last month, after months of not hearing it, I heard our owl again. I love living here.

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