Last Tuesday in Bosque at the cut cornfield we had a snow goose blast off and shortly after I suddenly noticed a coyote right in front of us coming from our left and wandering through the cranes. They were alert but didn't take off.
Anyway, the coyote didn't enter the corn field but turned around and trotted to the left again, seemingly from the direction it came from. I kept watching it as it wandered across the cut corn field when it suddenly started accelerating as it got closer to the berm separating this field from the next one left where a lot of snow geese were resting. It jumped over the berm upon which I lost sight of it but the reaction of the snow geese - panic, panic - suggested that it was going after them.
So, a bunch of us took our setups and rushed to the field with the geese of which about two thirds were still remaining. I happened to locate my setup right in front of the berm which has a ditch in the center. As I was scanning the field for the coyote I noticed that it actually was in the ditch going back and forth occasionally stopping and looking over the brush at the geese flock. It was at first very far away but it then decided to come closer, closer… I was already prepared to take a picture of the coyote as it stands in the open at the near end of the berm when…
Kaazoooom. It jumped out of the ditch in the berm and chased through the geese flock which partially took off. It was an incredible site even though it probably won't come even close to the drama people might encounter - and photograph - in Africa...
Unfortunately, the action here was far away and so fast and the AF system so confused by the birds taking off and struggling to pick up the coyote from the grass that the few images I got are nowhere close to the quality expected here that they mainly serve only as documentation shots. This time the memory is what counts…
Awesome story and image, John! I can certainly see why the camera was confused but I think you did very well with what was flying all around you. Thanks so much for sharing the story with us! What an experience this must have been.