El Coyote

Out of the corner of my eye I caught a coyote loping across my lawn this morning. There was nothing tentative or hesitant about his movement. It’s always like this when you see coyotes around here – they’re all business. Coyote sightings are becoming more frequent. Within the past ten days I’ve seen two that had been killed on local roads. At night I hear them singing. They drown out the sounds of the distant Taconic Parkway. I think what’s happening is that the animals we see are the scouts – the early arrivals of the race coming back to reclaim their ancient place. They want to beat out their shyer competitors, the black bears, wolves and pumas. All will return; the coyotes are first in line.