coyotes

many creatures are moving back into the bosque at the moment. This is coyote scat. I have often found scat with beetle wings in it. Coyotes are omnivores and this one has clearly been eating like grapes.

there are many young rabbits around and that is probably attracted to Coyotes in as well. Many have been hit by cars on the ditch banks. Rabbits hide during the day in shady, leafed areas where there is access to water. So the edges of a fenced front lawn is perfect.

To stay cool, and also hide that conspicuous white tail they dig a shallow scrape in the ground. Usually close to a tall wall to prevent ambush from behind and get shade.

Snakes and people have never gotten on well together. This picture is a headless gopher snake found in a field. It might have been killed by an animal, but my money is on a gardener.

I was thinking on this while I was photographing this little guy. It was "hiding" from me by swimming into the ditch and holding still. It was actually genius on the snake's side; I was able to get close to the guy for a cool picture because I knew he was not going to flee and also was not going to strike. He was pretending to be a stick. I am not a snake guy, but I have noticed that knowing what a snake is thinking goes a long way to being able to being comfortable around them. I guess the name for that is "empathy"

The insects are changing for sure, and every evening there is a new type of insect at the lights. Most moths are pretty boring, but every once in a while a spectacular one pops up and makes all the let-downs worth it. The names for these two are technical, and not easy to remember, but I think I will remember this picture well enough.

This insect is a digger wasp, and I am seeing a lot more of this type of species around right now. Especially where there is loose sand. While at Heidi's raspberry field, I noticed they had a spectacular number of bumblebees on their blossoms. I drove my head right into the brambles and got tucked in to the insect world. I also had fun watching a 12 year old boy trying to kung-fu the same insects to "stop them stinging him"!