Colliers Mills 9/4--Least Flycatcher

Coyote (also known as American Jackal)

Yesterday, despite having what my mother would have called "a touch of the flu," (caught from Shari, who had the full nelson version), I took my usual walk around Colliers Mills. After going to the woods north of Success Road to check off my Red-headed Woodpecker for the month, I started to walk around the field on the south side of the road. Before I got 20 feet in on the mowed path, I saw, amazingly, my first Least Flycatcher of the year, a returning bird no doubt on its way back south.  It sat on a twig right in front of me for a few seconds, hopped to another, and was gone before any photos were able to be taken. Ah well, powering through the flu was worth it. 

What was especially noteworthy to me though was an animal without feathers. I was in the back of the wetlands north of Turnmill Pond when I saw standing in the middle of the mud and water lilies, a coyote. At first, I took it for a fox, which you might expect there, but it obviously wasn't that. As soon as I said to myself, "Well, that explains why there's no birds here," 5 Wood Ducks flew up and out of the reeds. The coyote, once it caught a look at me, also ran off, happily in the opposite direction of where I was headed. 

I've seen a coyote around here before--one ran past me at Whitesbog while I was in my car a few years ago and I got a distant pic, and my informant has shown me coyote scat on the trails there, but this is the first good long look I've gotten of one.  I'm going to go on the assumption that they're more scared of people than people are scared of them--otherwise, it puts a severe crimp in my route there. 

The woods and fields were fairly quiet there yesterday; only 22 species for slightly under 3 hours of birding (and coughing). 

Wood Duck  5
Mourning Dove  1
Solitary Sandpiper  1
Greater Yellowlegs  2
Least Sandpiper  15
Great Blue Heron  1
Red-headed Woodpecker  1
Red-bellied Woodpecker  3
Hairy Woodpecker  1     Heard
Eastern Wood-Pewee  2
Least Flycatcher  1     
White-eyed Vireo  3
Blue Jay  1
Carolina Chickadee  4
Tufted Titmouse  2
Eastern Bluebird  5
American Robin  1
Eastern Towhee  1
Baltimore Oriole  1     Hawkin Road
Common Yellowthroat  1
Pine Warbler  1
Northern Cardinal  1