The people you meet when you walk down the street

[larryhammer]

Today's wildlife encounter was with a coyote, in the middle of the block, trying to pass each other going the other way. Not that coyotes are unusual hereabouts, but this was closer to sunrise and further from the wash than most encounters -- and more, she was heading away from the wash. Washes being the usual route into the city. She spent a fair amount of time trying to decide which side to circle around me, and continued watching me till she reached the end of the block. Also, the mangiest tail I've seen on a coyote.

Possibly coincidentally, this was the first night in a couple weeks I didn't hear a great-horned owl. A male's been hootling 'round the neighborhood, with an occasional female responding. I know nothing about the state of their tails.

---L.

Comments

[jamiam.livejournal.com]

How do you tell the males from the females, do you just duck down and look?

We saw a pretty non-mangy one standing in the middle of the Gates Pass/Kinney Rd. intersection last week at sunset. Good eating with all the rain, I guess. Which side of town are you on?

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

How do you tell the males from the females, do you just duck down and look?

The males wear bowlers or fedoras, the females wear cloches or berets.

[jamiam.livejournal.com]

Ah! See, and here I was looking at their shoes.

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

Most of them wear cowboy boots, in the Southwest anyway.

[larryhammer]

I almost footnoted that in the post. For the coyote, at one point walking away, she raised her tail just enough to not see dangly bits. For great-horned owls, males hoot less per call (Hu-hu, hoo, hoooo) than the females, (Hu hu-hu, hu-hoo, hoo, hoooo).

We're central, a few miles east of the U.

Stupid question: as a "recovering star wars addict," will you be going to TusCon, the local science fiction convention?

---L.

[jamiam.livejournal.com]

Yes, sir. I will even be bringing some unreconstructed LOTR fans with me.

[larryhammer]

We should meet up.

---L.

[jamiam.livejournal.com]

Capital idea. And you'll be wanting some hot sauce to go with that? Yes, of course, I think you will.

[larryhammer]

:-)

---L.

[jamiam.livejournal.com]

Seriously, you get coyotes in central? We live at Grant & Alvernon, and the best we ever get is the odd family of Harris hawks.

[larryhammer]

Seriously. They come down Alamo and Arcadia washes, at least as far as Craycroft & Speedway.

There was a family of Harris hawks hanging around two summers ago. I still see some soaring over, but not resting. There was a couple falcon nests (and, somewhere, a kestral nest) nearby this spring, but I never located them.

---L.

[coyoty.livejournal.com]

How do you tell the males from the females, do you just duck down and look?

By scent, of course.





Most males won't be wearing perfume, although some do use roll-in deodorants.

[jamiam.livejournal.com]

Tsk! I'm not just going to stick my nose in some strange coyote's armpit.

[larryhammer]

Not till you've been introduced, anyway.

---L.