I Need Some Sleep

Back in the day, I used to be a heavy sleeper. I mean real heavy. On one occasion, in college, I slept through a fire drill in the dorm. Quite a skill, huh? I could have used those skills last night.

After finishing up some reading about Abe (he is President now, by the way), I drifted off to sleep. Around 2:30am, some of the loudest, most obnoxious yipping, yapping and yelping starts up. While it, at first, sounded like it was on my porch, I got a better grip on my senses and realized it was coming from just a bit up the street. It was absolutely coming from within my subdivision.

Coyotes. Really. I figure there were three or four (okay, maybe five) gettin' all fussy about something.

While it may come as a shock to some, coyotes are here, have been here, and aren't going anywhere. They eat damn near anything, adapt as the world changes around them, and they tolerate people. Get used to them.

Some internet research suggests that the after-dark rabble-rousing is all about communication. Of course it is. The question is simple - "What are they trying to communicate?" One researcher claims that it basically calls the family group (the "pack", if you will) back together after a night of individual hunting. Another suggests that it is all about territories and that they are announcing to other coyotes in the area that they are "here" and trespassers will not be tolerated. (The picture on the left is a bad one from Ontario in 2008. It serves no real purpose here. It is just setting a mood...)

I guess both ideas are plausible. I mean really - what do I know? I'm not a coyote expert.

That said, I think there is a third possibility. In fact, I am pretty dismayed that other experts did not come up with this one.

I think it stands to reason that the Coyote last night was thrilled with the arrival of his rocket-powered roller skates from the Acme Company. Or maybe it was the rocket. Or perhaps the giant bow and arrow. I don't speak "coyote", so I can't be sure, but he certainly sounded excited as he was bragging to all his friends.

Any way you look at it, three things have to happen:
1) I have get some sleep tonight.
2) I have to see that Road Runner before Wile E. get 'em. That would be super bird for my Michigan checklist. I am already the only person in the state to see both Magnificent Frigatebird and Lesser Frigatebird in Michigan. A Road Runner would be every bit as awesome.
3) That Road Runner better watch it - "...if he catches you, you're through!"