Robert and I got up really early this morning so we could go to Little Green Valley. This is one of my favorite spots to sit up on the highway and watch the elk wake up in the morning. We were hoping to get some video of the elk bugling. We were disappointed when there was nothing in the huge meadow. I'm assuming that the full moon is probably keeping the elk out of the open areas.
We were pleasantly surprised to realize that the meadow wasn't completely empty after all. At first it was very dark and all we could pick up were two dark shapes in the meadow near a pond. As it got a little lighter but not light enough to use the camera, we noticed that the dark shapes were horses.
One horse walked around the pond and was spooked by some splashing. I wondered what in the world could be in that pond to cause so much splashing. As the morning became just a little bit lighter but still not light enough for my camera, we noticed that the splashing was coming from a large whitetail buck that was jumping around and in the water. He was even swimming in circles around the pond. Robert and I have never seen a deer swim so that was kind of cool.
The way that the deer was coming out of the pond and running back in and splashing around we just thought the deer was playing with the horses. As the sun came up enough that I could get some video we realized that some of that might have been play but lingering around in the bushes was a coyote that would come after the deer if it got too far away from the pond.
I did get some video that you're really going to enjoy. Keep in mind that this is taken with my digital camera zoomed into full digital zoom so it's not the best quality.
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Comments: 41
Very cool... thanks.
Robert wants me to tell you this story. He was out bow hunting turkey and deer out on the 512 road. He was sitting around waiting for the sun to come up and the critters to start moving. When the sun started coming up to where he could see he looked over and saw a bobcat laying under a tree watching him. He took a shot at it but the arrow went over the top of him. So he went to retrieve his arrow, came back, and got back into position. He looked behind him one more time to make sure the bobcat wasn't sneaking back up on him. When he turned around to look in the other direction there was a huge buck standing there looking at him. LOL. He couldn't get his bow in the ready quick enough before the buck took off. Haha!
I'll be up there for Turkey with my daughter next week, can't wait.
Cool experience for Robert, man... I could tell a million like that, LOL. Makes it all the more fun... ;-)
http://www.gather.com/viewImage.action?fileId=3096224743865793
Thank you so much for sharing with Animal & Nature photos, videos and posts.
One year we were duck hunting up in N. MN, & we set out across the river to place our decoys before sunup & a whitetail came swimming right by our boat.
Great pics, Toni.
Great video though.
A deer could probably outrun a single coyote on open ground but the meadow here is full of fencing to separate grass fields to feed livestock and horses through the year. It didn't really seem to me that the coyote was being serious here. He looked to be well fed and not in dire need of a meal. I think it was all more playful than anything.
Apparently there's an increasing number of coyotes in Golden Gate Park in SF. Between park wildlife, feral cats, and garbage cans it's an inviting habitat.
Those things will definitely attract the coyotes!