Saturday, February 18, 2012

The only good coyote....

With only two weekends left in the season I don't see a whole lot of downside in trying some new spots, the old spots being marginally productive and becoming a bit too familiar.  I pulled into the turnaround area on some national forest land this morning, cup full of coffee and optimism based on some positive reports from early in the season, and stepped out of the truck to this:

coyote remains

After a little scrounging around I found the missing pieces:

coyote paw



I'm not 100% on the ID but I'm pretty sure it's a coyote.  And this is the form I like to see them in.  A little more scrounging revealed some duplicate parts, pointing to at least a second casualty in the vicinity.

Only question is did someone drop the carcasses here in a display of pride or did some creature drag them here for a pagan feast?  Odd karma oozes from either possibility.  

Oh, and lest you think I'm a complete and total lesser canid bigot, there is one example of the species I hope never completely dies.  Since the beginning of time this earth has not seen a creature with more mechanical ambition and misguided persistence and as a guy with an engineering degree who is trying to bring back bobwhite populations, well....let's just say I know where he's coming from.


2 comments:

  1. You could add wolf to that headline also.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's what I hear, although they're pretty rare in my neck of the woods. Predators provide a useful function in the balance right up until they start breeding out of control.

      Delete