Coyote Sighted This Morning
After covering many (thousands) miles of biking, hiking and dual-sporting for the past 6-7 years (nearly every weekend/year-round) in the Pines, I finally spotted a coyote this morning.
And of course, the only camera I had was the less than able iPhone camera - which I was too slow on the draw with anyway.
I was on my mountain bike, cut across the power-line easement near the bend off Jackson road and thought I saw a deer scoot across a sandy bend (near the pump house ruins). I looked at the tracks as I passed and thought.... humm, not deer tracks.
About 45 seconds after that I was riding down the trail that leads back to my place and connects two very straight, long parallel dikes. As I passed (the long view down a dike) I noticed something moving away from me on the path. I rode past about ten feet, dropped the bike and walked back to look.
There he was, about 40-50 yards down looking over his shoulder - stopped. I stared at him, while reaching for my iPhone (camera). He then quickly moved about two steps in my direction and kinda raised up (a little aggressively) -- like he was reaching in the air to catch a whiff and looked straight at me. As I unlock the phone, he turned and quickly went off into the underbrush. Very exciting bike ride this morning. This encounter tops the white deer sighting as the coolest wildlife sighting in the Pine Barrens for me.
http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=39.82273...2284,-74.82984,3.5 km SxSE of Taunton Lake NJ
ed