A Couple Of Intereresting Coyote Hunting Techniques

New Year’s morning on Antelope Island was a cloudy, low-light affair.  It turned mostly sunny as we left for home in late morning and on the causeway we passed flocks of birders on their way to the island for their first day of birding in the New Year.  I couldn’t help but notice the irony – us photographers who needed good light didn’t get any and the birders who don’t, did… But despite the low light I was able to photograph two coyote hunting techniques that I thought were interesting.      1/800, f/8, ISO 500,  100-400 @ 150 mm, natural light This coyote was on the edge of a large hill overlooking the frozen shoreline of the Great Salt Lake far below.  I was very close to the animal but it was so intent on scanning the marshy area below for prey that it simply ignored me.  At one point it stood on its hind legs with its front legs on a large, snow-covered boulder to give it an even more elevated view of the hunting grounds down below.  I hoped that it would look back at me but it never did, though I think this pose, with just enough of the muzzle in view to show the direction the coyote was looking, well illustrates the hunting behavior. I was pleasantly surprised with one element of this photo.  I was much too close to this coyote to use my 500mm lens so I had grabbed my other 7D with the 100-400 attached and backed the zoom down to 150mm. …

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