Sunrise Coyote Encounter

Coyote Peering Through Barbed Wire Fence

Coyote Peering Through Barbed Wire Fence

Last week I took a chance dodging the rain storms here in the Bay Area to go out for a sunrise hike in a nearby East Bay Regional Park. While I was hoping for an epic sunrise with patch clouds glowing in the pre-dawn light, I ended up with patch ground fog, no clouds, and not much epic light.

However, I didn’t pout my way back to my car. As I approached one of the gates along the trail, I spotted some movement on the trail heading toward me. At first I thought it was a loose dog from the subdivision neighboring the trail. But as soon as it spotted me, it started to swing wide of me on the up slope of the hill. It was a Coyote. I just stood motionless and watched as it walked around me, never breaking it’s stride.

I could have continued back to my car and my waiting mostly warm coffee, but I couldn’t let him get away with a portrait or two. As soon as he was behind some shrubs, I dropped my bad to the ground, pulled out the camera, swapped lenses, and was ready to photograph as he came out the other side of the shrubs. He still knew I was there, but was just keeping tabs on me as he went about his business checking out the hill side.

Coyote Silhouetted in Orange Glow of Sunrise

Coyote Silhouetted in Orange Glow of Sunrise

I ended up tracking him for about 15 minutes, following him down the trail and up to the crest of the hill where he walked right into that epic early morning light. He zig-zagged along the ridge line long enough for me to get a few silhouetted photos and then went on to check up on the next hill.

Perfect example of not finding exactly what you are looking for but paying attention to what you find.

These two images are part of the Wildlife > Coyotes gallery in the Archive, where prints can be purchased or the images license for stock use.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Human Test * Time limit is exhausted. Please reload the CAPTCHA.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.