Kye Oh Tay

The notion of the trickster and the culture hero, together, is fascinating to me.   Around the West, coyote was the hero of these tales.  In the Northeast it was Raven, and in the South and Eastern United States it was hare and rabbit. But what is a trickster?  And what is a culture hero? [...]

Coyote as Creator

Several weeks ago, while botanizing, I noticed a dead-end steep drainage with a series of picturesque hoodoos.  It drew me and I decided to hike up and explore.  The drainage was thin and narrow with steep sides, so I was following up the bottom.  Although the nearby creek was full of run-off, this little tributary [...]

Shapeshifter

This is a great documentary, free online, by Canadian Geographic on coyotes.  Humans have been trying to eradicate coyotes for years, unsuccessfully.  In fact, whereas coyotes were confined to a small area of the West a hundred years ago, now they are ubiquitous, all over North America, from cities to suburbs, on islands and the [...]

A brilliant and frigid day

Its -14 degrees tonight at only 7 pm.  Today it was a clear beautiful day and the mercury never got above -1 degrees F.  I got bundled up and went out for a ski, but my new skis have a big problem with their bindings.  I tried for 20 minutes and never got my shoes [...]

Bald eagles, coyotes and a kill

An old cow elk broke her leg trying to get over the fence when a car drove bye.  Didn’t take long for the predators to bring her down.  Yesterday early morning I drove up the road and found 5 coyotes on a kill.  Usually coyotes can’t bring a large elk down, but they might have [...]

Bluebirds and coyotes

Last year I made this blue bird box but no birds liked it.  Then I heard that it takes a year before they’ll use it.  And, voila, some birds came and are nesting. That was several weeks ago.  Just a few days ago, I heard some little ‘peeps’ and thought ‘They’ve hatched!’ I built the [...]

Coyote pups

Yesterday morning I came across four coyote pups sniffing around the main dirt road.  Three of them finally trotted off through the meadow and down the hill towards the marsh area.  But one little pup, obviously the bold budding hunter of the group, remained in the meadows learning to hunt. I’ve seen their mom around [...]

Coyote the trickster and the real world

Coyote, the trickster. I am staying in the Bay Area this week, seeing friends, contacting clients. Last January I was here for a month working on a job, staying at Muir Beach, when I had the most unusual coyote experience. Our house was directly above the beach, with a private walkway down to the Muir [...]

Coyotes and Wolves

W___ says we’re having a ‘false spring’.  It was in the high 50′s today. “Don’t get too used to it” he told me.  For a Mediterranean girl like me, the 50′s are the new 70′s!  The solar and dryness made it downright hot.  Still, the snow cover makes for great tracking.  I’ve been learning about [...]