The Starling that Yodeled

 

European Starlings are pretty good mimics, and this short video proves that they do a decent job of imitating coyotes. The location was an abandoned house with a ravens' nest above the back porch, barn owls roosting in the attic, and coyotes denning in the crawl space that was also occupied by mountain cottontails. 

European Starlings seemed to occupy every hole in the wooden walls, and were fond of perching on the ravens' nest. They were already nesting in February, and they photobombed most of the clips that we recorded -- until a red-tailed hawk perched on the camera and tilted it downwards. When the ravens started to nest, the camera was out of commission.

The yodeling starling was the silver lining in this story. There was at least one songster, and maybe more. We couldn't see it or them in the video clips because they performed on the camera or right next to it -- out of view. Thus, the recordings were pretty good, but the songsters performed off-stage.  

 

Back at the coyote den

Here is a new video about the coyote den in Sierra Valley, taken in the winter and spring of 2023/24. This one had a few surprises. 

Happenings at a coyote den

  

 

Big sister with her mom's brood of nine pups.

In the fall of 2022 our foursome of camera trap enthusiasts set a camera at a coyote den in Sierra Valley. It wasn't an active den at the time, but setting a camera there in October gave the coyotes a few months to adjust to it. We lucked out. The local breeding pair settled into this den to give birth and raise their litter. 

The camera recorded over fifteen hundred clips, and it took a couple of weeks to review them. Our YouTube video below chronicles the main happenings at the den over six months. See it HERE

 

We found a Wickiup!

Several years ago we found a strange structure in a large willow thicket in the northern Sierra Nevada. It looked like a derelict wickiup or wigwam -- one of those Native American dwellings I learned about in grade school. Several dead willows had fortuitously collapsed and formed a natural dome shaped shelter. Which begged the question, did wild animals use this "wickiup" as a lair? 

We set trail cameras there in the fall of 2020 and 2021 and waited until the spring thaw to find out. This movie tells the story.

Coyote Meets Camera

I hope you enjoy this video showing coyotes encountering trail cameras. You'll see they don't all act in the same way. Sometimes they don't see the camera, or at least they act like they don't see it. At other times their body language screams "get me out of here". As I edited and studied these clips I always thought there's more here than meets the eye. Deciphering behavior is an enlightening part of our addictive hobby. As our subjects ponder their camera encounters we have to wonder about their thoughts. Sometimes their actions tell us exactly how they feel.

A meal that kept giving

There was no gaseous bloat, no writhing skin bag of maggots.

Just a cold carcass, which in the words of cowboy curmudgeon Wallace McRae, had barely started its 'transformation ride'*.

"Now, if we had 'really beeg cojones' ", I mused, "we'd gut this elk and put a cam in the body cavity".

The gaggingly repugnant but most sporting of camera trap sets -- the 'chest-cavity set' periodically tempts me as a route to up-close and personal pics of hide-tearing flesh-gulping predators.

Cavity sets,  if you are willing to crawl into dark places, are usually reserved for hollow logs, burrows and caves.

Wildlife photographer Alan Root knows no limits in such matters (at least in his youth), and to him we owe gratitude for showing the marvelous possibilities in Mysterious Castles of Clay.

Even if you don a garbage bag, setting a camera in the chest cavity of a large dead ungulate is a messy feat.

But who would opt for the alternative of crawling into the rib cage and spending the night there with camera in hand?

And yet, there's more than one account of a freezing frontiersman bundling up in a fresh buffalo hide or crawling into an eviscerated but steaming carcass.

A sound sleep they didn't get, but kick-boxing wolves under a wet hide certainly warmed them up.

But I'm getting off track.

As you might have guessed, our cojones were not equal to the task, so we settled for the unimaginative 'cam-beside-carcass set', and we still got some surprises.

The cams were set for night photos, but circumstantial evidence told us that vultures first feasted on elk lips and eyeballs; then they scalped the faces, slit their bellies, dragged out the viscera, and liberally whitewashed the neighborhood.

The carcasses grew gaunt but were still in one piece a month later.

Only 3 scavengers were to be counted in pixels, and only a deer mouse was photographed climbing into the meat locker.

The rest tended the carrion like a garden, apparently picking tender maggots and crunchy beetles from the exodus generated by aging flesh.

A burrowing owl was the most popular visitor -- making 9 forays.

A coyote made 3 visits, but was never seen tearing hide or gulping meat.

Like the owl it seemed to harvest insects, but lacking a beak, straw was unavoidable.

The fare at this diner didn't measure up to the beef at the Carrion Cafe.

The elk was more like a garden -- a meal that kept giving.


*/ If you were too lazy to click on the first link, I'm reminding you that you won't regret reading McRae's "Reincarnation".

Coyote gets BT Jack

The coyote caught BT Jack in mid-June, and strolled past the camera 45 minutes before midnight.

BT Jack is the black-tailed jackrabbit; that's how I abbreviate the species in our data tabulations for the Chimineas Ranch.

A 5 lb jack rabbit is a decent meal for a 30 lb coyote, and this coyote seems to have already devoured nearly half of it.

Another coyote happened by but was less composed.

And the bobcat was a bit spooky, though it didn't depart till it had sniffed the bait under the rock.

Pulled in two directions

Day 3

By the time Coyote showed up at set 421, Gray Fox had paid 7 visits and left 27 images.

I have no way of knowing exactly how many foxes Gray Fox happens to be, but suspect there are two look-alikes, a couple, in this corner of Chimineas.

But back to Coyote.

His first visit was brief. He looked at the camera, it flashed, and he was gone.

Caution, suspicion, fear, neophobia -- call it what you like -- it ushered him away.

Day 7

On his second visit, 4 days later, his decided to leave before the suspicious thing flashed.

Day 21

But  2 weeks later he was back.

He studied the suspicious thing long enough for it to flash, but when that happened he didn't hang around.

Day 28

Coyote made another appearance seven days later.

This time the camera was a stronger lure than the bait.

He needed to know more about the suspicious thing.

When the flash went off he played it safe.

He decided to leave Dodge City to braver souls like Gray Fox, who by this time had left 54 photos of his visits and scent-marking shenanigans.

Day 34

On day 34 however Coyote once again found himself drawn to the increasingly tempting stench from under the rock.

He was savoring that smell when the suspicious thing flashed and ended his reverie, but once again he escaped unscathed.

Day 57: 8:49:56

Finally, on day 57 Coyote stood his ground for over a minute.

He discovered that the suspicious thing was only a bluffer.

Its flash was harmless.

He sniffed the fascinating but fading balm with impunity.

The camera captured 4 images as he alternately sniffed and regarded the suspicious but harmless thing.

Day 57, 8:50:16

Day 57, 8:51:09

Day 57: last photo -- 8:51:29

The camera trap took pictures for 108 days.

Coyote left 12 photos during 7 visits, and Gray fox left 62 photos during 22 visits.

Two MOs.

If the suspicious thing had been dangerous, there's a good chance Gray Fox would be gone, and Coyote would still be around.

Coyote takes a sniff

August 18, 2010,  21:44:45

"Big ol' head, big ol' ears, skinny body," said the cowman, "must be a young dog coyote".

Meaning "male".

It was day 9 when the yote took a passing sniff at the bait rock, and neither he nor his kin were seen there again. 

Juvie coyotes of Chimineas

We got lots of juvenile coyote photos back in the summer.

Young dumb coyotes . . .

. . .  but photogenic.

A few were camera shy, and might be around next year.

But I like them all.

More from the rock

Now for a few more pictures from that lookout rock used by the gray fox.

The next most common visitor was a western screech owl -- the gray color phase which is more common in arid habitats.

 It made two appearances on June 30 and July 17 and left 12 pictures, one of which contained two owls.

So perhaps two owls were using the perch -- a pair of owls, or maybe mother and offspring. 

The picture in flight looks looks as if it might have been snatching insects from the chamise.

There were also a few visits by Peromyscus.

In very early morning a California towhee and a Bendire's thrasher also perched on the rock.

The notch-eared coyote showed up on August 5th, a few days before we collected the camera.

Who else?

Well possums, your guesses are all reasonable.

Bobcats would certainly cruise for wood rats and bunnies, as proffered by Doug and Desert Nutmeg, but neither showed up at set 312.

No hikers, either, Doug.

And coyotes definitely frequent the haunts of bobcats and vice versa.

In fact, one yodeler, seen above, did make a fleeting appearance just before noon on December 5th.

So Owlman and Randontruth actually picked a species that made a showing.

But Coyote wasn't a heavy user of the gulch.

Beep beep -- tomorrow night I'll post the answer.

Coyote spooks at the badger dig

7:49:38 PM

Like Black Tail Jack, Coyote also reacted with trepidation at the badger dig.

It's hard to say why, but it is not the camera that got its attention.

More likely another coyote, possibly the resident territory holder.

7:47:53 PM

The source of threat had moved when the second photo was taken.

Coyote was photographed one last time "making tracks" and eyeing the threat, which seems to have changed its position.

  7:48:32 PM

The images remind me of a scene in Lawrence of Arabia.

Remember when Sherif Ali shot Lawrence's Bedouin guide at the oasis?

A peaceful scene in the desert gave way to panic.

For trespassing at the well the Bedouin paid with his life  -- shot dead while scrambling to his camel.

I am sure coyote was luckier.

If it met the resident honcho, its punishment probably wasn't anything worse than a bite in the butt.

Gray fox gets around

 

Round round get around

I get around

Yeah

Get around round round I get around

Here he is again, the get around kid, this time checking out a dab of delectable fox butter on a chilly night near the crest of a steep hill.

Like car-cruising Beach Boys, Gray Fox gets around very well indeed, even with a low-slung chassis.

I sometimes tire of his ubiquitous image, but he deserves credit for being a cooperative subject.

He has none of Coyote's inhibitions around camera traps, and in my experience he is often the first fellow to show at a set.

Figuratively speaking, he's a rambler, showing up almost everywhere habitat-wise, except in the grassland.

Here from set 318 there's a commanding view of the grassland, but outcrops and nearby chaparral offer cover.

  

Gray Fox may get around, but only one of the Beach Boy lyrics really apply.

My buddies and me are getting real well known
Yeah the bad guys know us and they leave us alone

Well, if you're a Gray Fox, Coyote is the bad guy.

On this chilly night Gray Fox stood only a few yards from a burrow, vertically elliptical in outline, and thus one that most probably accommodates Coyote.

Yet the two species coexist on the Chimineas rangeland.

Before California Fish and Game took over the management of Chimineas ranch, Coyote was persona non grata, and culled.

According to my colleague Kathy Ralls, who used to work on Chimineas, Coyote was very retiring in the old days, and hightailed it when he saw people.

Nowadays you can snap his picture if you are quick with your camera, but he still doesn't hang around.

Not so with Gray Fox.

You might not see him very often, but he's smaller, and perhaps less prone to daylight escapades.

As for getting round, the codger isn't.

Not since tearing my Achilles tendon a week ago.

I am now sporting the big-foot-star-wars boot, and you don't hike, dog walk or boogy wearing something that feels like a bear cub hugging your ankle.

It's tough on Fred.

He knew something had changed right away, and hung back the first 24 hrs.

Then separation anxiety set in.

I knew he was spoiled but didn't think it was this bad. I mean its not like I went away.

He cried so much when we put it to crate at night, that now he sleeps in the bedroom.

For exercise he is getting  2-3 games of fetch-the-ball daily (which by the way was the cause of my injury).

Camera trapping diversions like Chimineas Ranch and Marin County will have to be on hold for a while.

It's going to be a long winter.

Coyote at night

A coyote was also photographed at the set of the curious crumple-eared bobcat.

Here you can see the effect when the flash is on the red-eye setting.

The tapetum lucidem still reflects the flash's light, but with pupils contracted the eyes don't look like headlights on high beam.

By coincidence I stumbled upon Lewis Garrard's description of the song of the yodel dogs:

" . . . a species of music much like a commingled bark, whine yelp, and occasionally a spasmodic laugh, now tenor, now basso; then one would take a tenor solo, and after an ear piercing prelude, all would join in chorus, making an indescribable discord."

Thanks to Brian of Wind River Ranch (another western frontier romantic) for sending Garrard's book.

Before going away, listen to the yodel dogs' repertoire at Soundboard.


Reference

Garrard, L.H. 1955. Wah-to-yah and the Taos Trail, or prairie travel and scalp dances, with a look at Los Rancheros from muleback and the Rocky Mountain campfire. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.

The Sandstone Amphitheater

Unusual or uncommon landscape features attract predators and curious naturalists.

A cut bank on an otherwise uniform prairie, a pile of flotsam on a river floodplain, a bluff feeding boulders, scree, and sand to an alluvial plain -- they all speak to the forces of  nature and allure the likes of us.

Here was a sandstone amphitheater in a bend of a dry wash.

When we saw it we knew it was the place for a camera trap. 

Bats had been using the overhang as a night roost,  owls had paused there long enough to litter the sand with fur-packed pellets, and a cougar had left a few tracks in the sand.

Since the rainy season was upon us, we found the high water mark and set the camera trap above it.

The only visitor, a coyote came 11 days later at 8:48AM.

After the picture above was taken, the animal approached the camera to check it out.

The smell of people didn't alarm it -- it was probably a transient.

No resident territory holder would be so bold or foolhardy.

 
It returned to investigate the rock that covered the can of rotten mackerel.

Then it scented the air and was gone.

Irresistable can in the ditch

Once you punch a few holes in the can, the aging process begins.

After a few warm days the mackerel becomes an even more powerful attraction to carnivores.

The first yodel dog (above) appeared 5 days after Craig staked the can, and there were 8 more visits over the next 23 days.

A pair of coyotes, perhaps the residents, passed by without approaching the sample closely.

The others were apparently singletons/transients who sniffed deeply of the brewing fish,

and scratched at the soil.

And at least one clever coyote tried to lift the can off of the rebar stake.

There's no telling how many different yotes we photographed, but it is clear that the gully is used by more than the pair.

Leaping coyote

Camera traps occasionally get pictures of coyotes in flight, but usually not like this.

Coyote beautiful

Whoever came up with "coyote ugly" never saw this aristocratic face.

One handsome coyote

Just back from a quick trip to the SF Bay area where checking cams in Marin County was long overdue. 

This coyote passed the camera on two different days and paused long enough to give me two very nice images. 

What a difference from the rangy yammering skulkers at the Carrion Cafe. 

A few days later he was back and on the prowl at 5:00AM.

Whatever caught his attention, he decided to check it out and divulged his sex (so sorry, I was supposed to say gender -- I just keep forgetting that gender is the politically correct word for sex . Never mind gender, folks, -- I'm talking about sex. 

Be sure to check out SittingFox for Adele's recent pictures of  coyotes on the Canadian prairie. 

If yodel dogs make you feel poetic, she has that too.