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1\/2500, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n Normally the coyotes on the island are elusive and difficult to approach but I believe this to be a young one so\u00a0it\u00a0didn’t seem\u00a0overly concerned about the presence of my pickup (I don’t know its sex but for the sake of convenience I’ll refer to it as a male). Besides, he had hunting in mind and he wasn’t about to let me interfere with a potential meal.\u00a0In this image he has just spotted something of intense interest in the grass a few feet in front of him.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/1600, f\/8, ISO 500, Canon 7D,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n Here the coyote\u00a0is beginning\u00a0to make his stalk. He hasn’t yet crouched down because if he had he wouldn’t be able to see the prey through the tall grass. But he’s very, very focused.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/1250, f\/8, ISO 500, Canon 7D,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n As\u00a0he got closer (both to the potential prey and to me) he began to crouch down in a manner reminiscent of a hunting cat.<\/p>\n At this point I\u00a0sensed that something dramatic\u00a0was about to\u00a0happen so I tried to prepare myself for “the shot”. The most common prey of coyotes on the island is voles but I was pretty sure it wasn’t a vole this time\u00a0because the coyote was too far away from his point of interest when he first spotted it to have seen a tiny vole through the grass\u00a0from that distance. I thought it was going to be a rabbit – both jackrabbits and cottontails are very common around that campground. Whether vole or rabbit I knew I wouldn’t get a good shot of the moment of capture (if it happened) because the grass was just too tall at ground level. I was hoping to get a shot or two with the prey in his jaws when the coyote raised his head after the capture.<\/p>\n I could kick myself (hard!)\u00a0for not considering the possibility that the prey might be a bird that would flush straight up<\/em> in front of the coyote.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/1600, f\/8, ISO 500, Canon 7D,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n This is the shot that broke my heart because I cut off one wing and the top of the head of the prey (a juvenile chukar). If I had anticipated that the prey might be a bird that would flush I’d have allowed for more room above the coyote. I didn’t have a lot of wiggle room (this image has been cropped very little and is 85% of the\u00a0original) but I didn’t need much to keep from cutting off the bird. I’d rather have cut off the coyotes legs (that we can’t see anyway) than to have done this to the Chukar.<\/p>\n Yet another thing that\u00a0could have saved the day would have been if my shutter had fired about 1\/20 second earlier. If it had I’d have caught the bird in a lower position and the coyotes jaws agape (here they’ve just snapped shut).<\/p>\n So many things went right for me. I had enough shutter speed to pretty much freeze the action, the angle of light was good on both subjects,\u00a0the point of contact was above the grasses and visible, the coyote got close to me in the first place and most of all, it flushed a bird right in front of me and I had my camera ready.<\/p>\n But\u00a0what do I do\u00a0but screw up what was probably a once in a lifetime opportunity by decapitating the Chukar! I should have anticipated that the prey was a Chukar because I’d seen a covey of these young birds disappear into the grasses in that same vicinity just a few minutes earlier. I’m familiar enough with the behavior of\u00a0Chukars to know that they’re reluctant to fly and will often flush at the last second in front of a threat. There’s so many things for a wildlife photographer out in the field to think of, anticipate and plan for but\u00a0this is one I missed.\u00a0If you’re a nature photographer I expect you understand my frustration.<\/p>\n Oh, and by the way – the coyote had the same luck\u00a0I did.\u00a0The Chukar escaped the jaws of death with only the loss of one small contour feather that I could see in the next frame as it floated to the ground. Bad day for both of us I guess. I keep reminding myself that at least I saw<\/em> something that most folks never experience.<\/p>\n For now that will have to suffice…<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This is the shot (the 4th in the series) that broke my heart. <\/p>\n![\"coyote-9202-ron-dudley\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/coyote-9202-ron-dudley.jpg\")
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