Of late, other than birds, the only critters I've seen in the garden on a regular basis have been bunnies. Way too many bunnies. The raccoons and the possums have paid regular visits of course but they restrict these to the dead of night so what I see is just the wreckage they leave behind. I haven't even seen many squirrels, although the occasional sight of half-buried unripe guavas and persimmons suggests they've paid a stealthy visit or two as well. Last week I complained to my husband that the abundance of bunnies suggested the absence of their usual predators. The very next day he saw one of the missing predators in the middle of the day, trotting through our back garden seemingly without a care in the world as shown in the following video.
My husband said the coyote walked nonchalantly through the garden and down our back slope into the canyon. He pulled the video off our security camera later but he advised me of the sighting immediately afterwards and, hearing the next door neighbor's Pomeranian dogs barking their heads off, I hurried to alert her. She lost one dog to a coyote years ago and I didn't want her to lose another.
Coyotes used to be nocturnal. We'd noticed that they'd extended their hours on both the front and back ends of their prior nighttime schedules but this was the first time I'd seen one out and about during the noon hour. You'll note that he knew exactly where our fountain is too!
Coincidentally or not, I haven't seen a bunny in the garden since the coyote's reappearance last week.
All material © 2012-2022 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party