MonikaC
Well-Known Member
I ended up in Yosemite one dry & warm winter several years ago (70 degrees in February made for some nice lounging by the Merced at Sandy Beach). I'm sure many of you know what it looks like in those conditions - dry, brown grass everywhere, low water levels, making finding interesting compositions challenging. One sunrise, I was out in El Cap Meadow, waiting for the light to hit the Captain. In a pathetic attempt to create a slightly interesting foreground, I'd scattered some pine cones in front of my tripod. I had a 15mm on the camera & had a 24-70mm in the bag. As I loitered around (cloudless sky, of course), a coyote came up from the river behind me. I'll call it a "she" for the story. Obviously used to humans, she first checked out my pack, then sniffed every single pine cone I had placed. She wandered around, sat briefly (too briefly for my slow settings to be anything but a blur) and finally trotted off. I then snapped out of my reverie of watching her and kicked myself for not having the presence of mind to put my 24-70 on & switching camera modes to my wildlife settings. She must have intuited my thought because she came back. Now I remembered to put my 24-70 on & switch to wildlife mode. This time, she grabbed a good sized branch, danced around with it, tossed it up in the air & caught it, stopping every few moves to look slyly over at me to make sure I was watching She'd get down in the doggie "play" position (head down, butt up) & look up coyly to see if she'd enticed me into playing. Finally, she decided to chase her tail. Around & around she whirled until she finally caught it.
When I finally left, she trotted parallel to me, about 50' away to the other side of the meadow. There was a man w/his young son there (maybe 6 years old). She trotted right up to the little boy, who must have thought she was a dog, as he put his hand out to her. Dad, as you might imagine, frantically yelled at his boy to hurry up & get in the car now!
With all you Yosemite regulars, have any of you encountered friendly coyotes there?
When I finally left, she trotted parallel to me, about 50' away to the other side of the meadow. There was a man w/his young son there (maybe 6 years old). She trotted right up to the little boy, who must have thought she was a dog, as he put his hand out to her. Dad, as you might imagine, frantically yelled at his boy to hurry up & get in the car now!
With all you Yosemite regulars, have any of you encountered friendly coyotes there?
