A cold front fell across Kentucky this week, the kind where the landscape froze under a blanket of snow and the wind knifed through every layer of clothing. Along with it came a photographic opportunity I could simply not pass up. In spite of the frigid temperatures, I ventured to the cornfields and setup my simple camo-burlap blind and waited for the deer to find their way into their feeding grounds.
During that wait, a flight of about two hundred Sandhill Cranes flew over, their ancient migration a right of passage for all nature photographers. Although they did not set down in front of my location, they did set down nearby. Just seeing them was reward enough.
A short while later I noticed some movement across the cornstubble. A quick look through the camera's long lense revealed a coyote searching for a meal. He was not typical of most coyotes around here. He looked strong and healthy and his thick coat carried a lot of black across his back and sides and the length of his tail. He also had a while chin and lower neck. I thought he might have been what is known as a coydog, a cross between a wild coyote and a domesticated dog. Regardless, he was fun to watch.
After a while he trotted the length of the field and crossed in front of me and passed over into the other western field. A few moments later, I heard snorts of distress and alarm from the deer as they encountered this marauding hunter. The coyote must have caught something for there was a continuous crying of alarm sounding a lot like a dying rabbit, but not exactly the same. It also carried the sound of a young deer being alarmed, the kind of sound that alerted and agitated the deer herd. They, wanting to distance themselves from the coyote, entered the field in front of me where I was able to capture both video and still shots of these amazing animals.
Come and join me on this fascinating, very cold and snowy, photographic hunt across the farm country of Kentucky.
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