Last Thursday's Hike

Once again I got out to Sierra Vista to do a little hiking while I was feeling okay. When I started out I thought I should have gone over to the gardens as I haven't been there in awhile. After awhile I was glad I had taken this hike at this time.
I had the closest encounter with coyotes that I have ever had other then in a car.
While I was walking along the ridge just up from the Chumash Center I looked over and there were two coyotes walking along hunting for ground squirrels. They noticed me there but really didn't care at all! I got to stand there and watch them for at least 20 minutes. It was neat. The female was a little more nervous about me but the male didn't seem to care at all!! He just went along looking into all the holes in the ground. The pictures didn't turn out real good but they will serve to remind me of a very nice hike.

This is the first sight I had of them. At this point I was sure they would take off the second they saw me. How wrong I was.



This is the two of them together. The female came over to see what he was checking out but it was too close to me so she wandered off again the whole time giving me dirty looks!

This is the male checking out the squirrels holes. Compared to the coyotes we see at Death Valley these two were very, very well fed!!