My Real Coyote Keeper Photograph...

This is it, note the vole spread eagle just inches from his mouth.

Today as promised is my real keepers of the coyote with the vole he captured for lunch in SNP. I know there has been other photographs taken by many other photographers that would top this but the first photograph with the coyote jumping and the vole in mid air is one of my best and favorite wildlife photographs I have taken. The lighting was decent but I was trying to keep the ISO at 400 or below, that kept the shutter speeds down causing me to miss a number of the action photos from this encounter. In hind site I would have cranked up the ISO a bit more. That is a dilemma I struggle with many times in the field often making the same mistake.

After playing with his capture (yesterdays photos) he finally picked it up allowing me to see what he had. This lasted only seconds as he walked a few feet away with it and ate it in what seemed like one gulp. He then walked away ending our two day encounter. While in SNP for five days recently to photograph the whitetail rut I only seen him one more time and that was early Wednesday morning yielding no photographs. As often as I visit SNP I have to believe there will be more encounters in the future with this fellow and other coyotes. The rest of the week I will begin to post photographs from the recent whitetail rut.

Please visit my son Shane's blog today for a new post.