![\"coyote](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/coyote-7600-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThis is the younger, smaller animal.\u00a0 It was trailing behind the adult at a respectful distance.<\/p>\n
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Several times I observed it snagging flying insects out of the air.\u00a0 I know that canids often bite at annoying insects but this\u00a0coyote was eating them and I believe that it was\u00a0reduced to this level of prey by lack of food.\u00a0 This insect was larger than the ubiquitous brine flies and midges on the island – a close crop of the image made me think it might have been\u00a0a horse fly or deer fly.\u00a0 Both are present there.<\/p>\n I’ve cropped this image tighter than I normally would to provide slightly more detail on the bug in front of the open mouth.\u00a0 As you can see, it didn’t even break stride as it caught the insect.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n We followed the coyotes east for quite a while and eventually they stumbled upon what I believe was the remains of a shorebird that had been previously fed upon.\u00a0 There wasn’t much left but bones and a few feathers.<\/p>\n Here the dominant and lighter colored adult is inspecting the find with the younger coyote in the background watching curiously.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The adult had no interest in the remains as food but, typical of canids, marked it with urine.<\/p>\n Aside:\u00a0 As I watched this\u00a0play out I couldn’t help but think of the scene in the movie “Never Cry Wolf” (based on Farley Mowat’s autobiography of the same name)\u00a0where\u00a0Tyler, the biologist, is having a urine marking contest with the wolves he is studying, particularly\u00a0the two he has named George and Angeline.\u00a0\u00a0 That\u00a0day Tyler “loaded his gun” with 27 cups of\u00a0 tea…<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The adult\u00a0immediately walked away in apparent disdain but the youngster\u00a0was obviously very curious about the now urine-soaked remains…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n which it investigates with apparent\u00a0trepidation.<\/p>\n At this point I switched over to my other camera with the 500 mm lens attached to get a closer look.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The young coyote mouthed the remains…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n and then picked some of\u00a0them up.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n But it walked only a few steps with them before they were rejected.\u00a0 Then the two coyotes continued their forlorn walk to the east and we headed home.<\/p>\n I couldn’t help but have\u00a0serious empathy for these two.\u00a0 Life is definitely tough “out there” and not just for coyotes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n