The Story
Both ears up, both eyes on the lens. A coyote stands broadside on a leaf-strewn trail in Penobscot County, Maine, and for the moment the camera is the most interesting thing in these woods.
The coat reads easily. Black-washed fur runs along the back and down the flank, broken by a pale patch above the shoulder. Below that the color warms: rust on the legs, the ears and the cheeks, then a white throat and chest. New York's wildlife agency describes the eastern coyote in nearly those words, blonde or reddish blonde to dark tan washed with black, with legs, ears and cheeks usually reddish. Coyotes molt once a year, from May into July, so by late October this coat is long past that change.
One frame cannot put a number on this animal. The type runs large, though: eastern coyotes weigh 35 to 45 pounds and measure 4 to 5 feet from nose to tail. Beyond size, that agency's marks for telling one from a wolf are large pointed ears and a pointed snout, and both show here. At the far end of the frame the tail hangs low and dark, the carriage expected of the species.
Daylight is the less usual part. Coyotes are essentially nocturnal, more active after sunset and at night, though they may be seen by day. This one is out in plain light among yellowing leaves, on a bare dirt track. Coyote trails often follow game trails, road edges and dirt roads.
That is the ground this camera covers. The filmer runs five fixed trail cameras on ATV paths and game trails behind the house, and this coyote shares the week ending October 30, 2020 with a buck in rut, deer, black bear yearlings and bobcats at play. The filmer's usual roll call there includes deer and rabbit, and the coyote diet, about 90 percent mammals, takes in both. Nothing in the frame says it is hunting. For now it is only looking.
