September isn’t over yet, but I’ve gone on more than a few unremarkable remarkable walks — the usual, in other words, around Grovenor, Glenora, Ravine Drive and MacKinnon Ravine. And in between, summer turned to fall. I’m longing to get back in the woods, but these walks are good enough.
We’re headed into a mini-heatwave and a long weekend, so hopefully some ravine walks are in my future. Today, it looked like autumn but felt like summer.
As we were walking in MacKinnon Ravine Wednesday around 1 p.m., a coyote came padding up the trail, like a fluffy medium sized dog. This ravine is the likeliest place to spot these guys, and the second coyote ‘encounter’ we’ve had this year. Always happy to see them, but I would prefer that it wasn’t this close, and if it must be this close, that I have my camera ready.
By the time I got my phone out, he had jumped into the bushes so I only got a few shadowy photos. I kept looking back, but he was gone.
About 22C. 13,525 steps.
AMAZING walk today with Tom. Aside from the usual niceness, we spotted a coyote, just below the MacKinnon Bridge. There was a family (with a stroller) about to walk into its path. I yelled down but I think they’d already spotted it and backed up.
The coyote was watching them closely, but turned the other way once it got to the top of the hill. He looked really beautiful and fluffy, but possibly moulting? A friend suggested mange. I hope not. I contacted the U of A Coyote Project just to get their thoughts.
UPDATE: I contacted the very nice Colleen St. Clair at the Edmonton Urban Coyote Project and she said this: “My colleagues at Animal Damage Control agree that those are shoulder mites on the shoulders, which coyotes seem to get from dogs. They weren’t sure about that black patch on the tail. It might just be black fur, but it might also be the start of mange.” Poor coyote. He looked very healthy and alert, other than the fur.
Always love spotting wildlife, especially when I can grab a photo or two. Also saw a leaf that looked like a tree and another example of the rare Glovewood Tree (in bloom), but not as spectacular as the coyote!
12,000+ steps, about 2C.