Poor pictures, unusual sight

Wildlife around our place is common. Yesterday morning I noticed in the snow where fresh fox and rabbit tracks crossed. Not unusual. But there were a couple drops of blood in one place. Not sure what exactly what happened, but the signs pointed to one possibility.

We're always looking outside to see our forest neighbors when they come through. Last night I flipped on the light and saw the coyote scrounging seeds the birds spill under the bird feeder. A movement near my feet caught my attention to a raccoon on the porch.

I went for my camera, laid on the floor and pulled the curtain back enough to stick the lens through but saw the raccoon was gone. A minute later I noticed him wandering out toward the coyote. Oh boy, I thought. There's going to be a confrontation here! Or one of them is going to just take off.

Hardly! They ate together like they were old buddies. In all of my years here I'd never seen this before. We just had a prolonged cold snap. (It was -17F (-27C) the other morning.) Hunger might have overcome potential hostility, and it wasn't worth wasting calories in a fight. Then again, maybe theywere old buddies

To document this (and so my wife would believe me) I decided to take some hand held pictures with slow shutter speed at high ISO in the poor light anyway. Sometimes it's better to get a poor picture than no picture at all.

BTW, we don't ever feed or bait them to come around. Being at the end of the subdivision our driveway is somewhat an easy "game trail" the critters use at times to get up and down the hillside.

Thanks for looking, and listening to a long-winded story. Thought might be of interest to some.

Nick

--
Photography -- a compatible blend of tech and art --
(Please contact if you want to use any posted photos.)