Coyote on the Otter Lure

This is the same camera where I've been getting pictures of a (to-date) unidentifiable animal. 
I was going to hold on to this picture and try and incorporate it into another post (I don't want this blog to become a bunch of random photographs posted haphazardly). 

However, there's just something about this picture that I like.  I can't fully explain it.  The slightly lifted front left paw....as if it came in for a second, but was prepared to move-on even before it stopped to take a sniff.  The nice condition of its coat...no mange...no skin and bones, that I can tell.

That, and I have to admit, I like coyotes.  I don't want to give the impression that I'm some hippy-dippy tree hugger, or some patchouli oil and hemp-wearing activist.  I'm not at all.  But, I like the coyote.  Mostly becuase they are an amazing example of the cunning, adaptability, and perserverence that wildlife have to possess in order to hang on in the modern era.  Unfortunately, for the coyote, these traits also give it a bad name...to the point that folks "hate varmits, like coyotes", mostly because they will take white-tailed deer and livestock.  Not that there ain't plenty of deer around....but whatever.

I'll talk about studies of coyote diet in a later post.

I've been getting more (and better) pictures of coyotes lately.  But they have been so wary around here, that any picture of them is a treat for me.  But this one...in particular...is unique.  I've not gotten a coyote picture on my one-and-only traditional white flash camera prior to this.  The flash scares them off quicker than the red glow of the IR cameras do, it seems.  Thus, they never really get close enough to be in frame when the flash goes.  So, I suspect the big bright flash fires when they are warily skirting around the edge of an area where I put out scent and/or bait....probing for danger.  When the flash fires, the 'yotes are too far out to be in the picture, and then skeedaddle for good (I wonder how many of the blank white-flash pictures I get are the result of such a series of events).

This one came in just right, however.  Didn't get picked up by the camera until he was right on the scent I put out.  Interestingly, this time it was a commercial lure to attract Otters, as this camera is along a river bank.

Anyways, I liked this picture enough that I decided it warranted its own post.