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<\/p>\nThe coyote obviously had crane cutlets in mind for breakfast but the cranes seemed to be taunting him, even daring him to attack. The attitude and demeanor of the cranes seemed to say “Give it your best shot, Buster”.<\/p>\n
Yesterday morning in the mountains I witnessed a tense encounter between a coyote and three, later four, Sandhill Cranes. The eight photos below document that encounter even though the first four shots are a little soft, possibly due to operator error in all the excitement. All photos are presented in the order they were taken.<\/p>\n
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At first the coyote was mostly hidden in the willows in the upper background but the three cranes were very aware of ‘his’ presence. The two adults on the right were wary but calm but the presumed younger crane on the left displayed on and off throughout the encounter.<\/p>\n
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Soon the coyote came walking slowly out of the willows heading almost directly toward the cranes. At first the cranes took it in stride but eventually as the coyote got closer they…<\/p>\n
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took flight. But they didn’t go far, only about 100′ or so before they landed again and it was there that they apparently decided to stand their ground.<\/p>\n
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As the coyote approached them a second time the youngster continued to display but the adults were much calmer as they watched him…<\/p>\n
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slowly get closer.<\/p>\n
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The coyote was pretty sneaky about his intentions as he approached. At this point he wasn’t walking directly toward them, instead he was circling around, eventually coming between me and the cranes. He often seemed to be ignoring the cranes by looking away from them but it was obvious to me that he wanted nothing more than crane for breakfast.<\/p>\n
Of course the problem was getting close enough to make a successful attack before the huge lumbering cranes could get off the ground and fly off to safety.<\/p>\n
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I was flabbergasted by how close the cranes let the coyote get to them. Even with the coyote this close the adults remained calm and watchful while the younger bird continued to act up.<\/p>\n
It was obvious to me that all players in this little drama knew precisely how close the coyote would have to get to make a successful attack as the cranes walked slowly in front of the coyote and maintained that distance with what seemed to me like only inches to spare. I actually had the feeling that the cranes were taunting the coyote, even daring him to attack. They could have flown off many times but they chose to stand their ground.<\/p>\n
Not long before this shot was taken I could hear a fourth crane in flight approaching from the south. Crane #4 could obviously see the coyote below him but he landed next to the other cranes as if he wanted to join in the ‘fun’.<\/p>\n
In this shot there are actually four cranes in the group but with my long lens I could only fit three of them in frame.<\/p>\n
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Now we can finally see all four cranes with the coyote very close to them at lower left.<\/p>\n
I spent almost 16 minutes watching this little drama unfold but the coyote never did rush the cranes who continued to calmly keep almost this exact distance between them and their potential killer whom they appeared to be toying with. So, difficult as it may be to believe, I eventually decided to leave the coyote and the cranes behind and look for other critters to photograph before the sun got too high in the sky for good nature photography.<\/p>\n
Later in the morning just before I drove by the same spot I wondered if I’d find nothing left of one of the cranes but a huge pile of feathers but there was no evidence in the area that any of the participants had ever been there.<\/p>\n
Yes, I was relieved – both for the cranes and for myself as a nature photographer who would have made the wrong decision and missed experiencing and documenting the attack that would have killed one of the cranes.<\/p>\n
I’d have been uncomfortable watching it but I’d hate to have missed it.<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
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An interesting note:<\/em><\/p>\n My friend Jay Banta was manager of Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge in remote western Utah for many years. Jay made the following comment on my link to this post on Facebook:\u00a0“However the coyotes are far too often successful in much of greater Sandhill range. In 15 years of having 1-2 nesting pairs at Fish Springs there were only 2 colts that made it to fledging.”<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The coyote obviously had crane cutlets in mind for breakfast but the cranes seemed to be taunting him, even daring him to attack. The attitude and demeanor of the cranes seemed to say “Give it your best shot, Buster”.<\/p>\n