A good dump of snow is such a lovely time to experience nature a whole new way. I am grateful that we still get good snow falls in this area at least a few times a year!
Today I ventured out for a sit spot, but was turned off by the loud noise of snow blowers in my neighborhood. After my husband spotted two coyotes crossing our road, however, my curiosity was renewed and I pulled my boots back on to try to find their tracks.
I didn't take long because, as it turns out, I have a coyote superhighway just beyond my mailbox!
I slogged through the shin deep snow for half an hour in the forested area across the street from my house following one trail after another. Figuring out which direction each coyote was going was pretty easy because of the direction of the foot prints, but the vast number of different trails all over had me perplexed pretty quickly as to who was going where and and who had doubled back and when this happened and why.
A cool thing that I have never seen before was this:
It did not look like urine, (I found another spot where one had obviously peed and it looked different (see below) but was gelatinous like mucus and had what looked like blood in it.
The ground was very trampled nearby and there were several tufts of fur on the ground.
I wonder what happened! Was it a fight? Is one of the coyotes sick? Does this sign have something to do with normal mating behavior?
Here are some more detailed photos from my little excursion:
Tracks and sign everywhere! Thank you for the wonderful show coyotes! Now that I know where you like to hang out, I'll be back more often!