Coyote on the Move

“Coyote is always out there waiting, and Coyote is always hungry.”

– Navajo Proverb

Hearing coyotes in the high desert is easy. Seeing them, at least for me, has proved challenging. At most, I’ve seen five coyotes over the ten years I’ve lived in northern New Mexico, which means I have a lot to learn about how to pay close attention to these trickster predators.

So, of course, when I saw this particular coyote in the faraway distance trotting across one of the many cornfields in the Bosque del Apache last winter, I did my very steal a likeness of it. What I found remarkable was how the cranes who were in close proximity remained earthbound as he quickly ran past them. I was too far away to notice who their gaze was pointed toward – perhaps another coyote?

Although I rarely see them in the Bosque del Apache, I can feel them in the shadows watching and waiting. All it takes to understand the wild hunger of these creatures is to be awakened in the middle of the night by the raucous yips and howls of a pack celebrating the successful take-down of some unlucky rabbit. It’s the sound of blood mixed with gratitude. The sound of warning to rejoice in the midst of life’s calamity.

..