Coyotes

        The coyotes are howling again tonight. It always sounds like they are trying to outdo one another in rather unorganized turmoil...yips and barks between the sorrowful howls. Some nights multiple groups compete with each other across the valley and it is fun to listen to them. The calls make the night darker and the forest forbidding.
        Well over a dozen wild turkeys wandered through the yard this afternoon and I wondered how many turkeys become meals for coyotes. An adult turkey would make a feast for a coyote, but the big birds easily take to flight ahead of our dogs. Would they be so lucky with a hungry coyote?
        Surely some grouse end up on the coyote’s menu, but I think it is few. Probably more baby grouse are eaten by turkeys. Turkeys will eat nearly anything and eggs of ground nesting birds must be a treat for them. A few-day-old grouse is just like a big insect to a turkey. Adult grouse have few enemies other than the northern goshawk.
        It is easier to imagine a young adult grouse flying fatally into a tree as it flees some peril, whether four footed or airborne.

Trail cam picture of a coyote below Camp Grouse.