The Watcher in the Woods
In one of the first springs that we lived in this house, our neighbour told us about the coywolf pair that lived in the thicket behind our property. He warned us that he suspected that they had a den somewhere close by and that the kids were to be careful when they were playing outside. Since I had grown up with woods and a creek as my backyard, I was not in the least worried about a danger factor, but more fascinated than anything else. Interestingly enough, a local magazine had done a feature article on coywolves that spring with a beautiful male on its cover. So the timing seemed uncanny.
Every spring, a low area between our neighbour's property and ours fills with water and remains that way for several months. And every spring, we have a male and female mallard come and claim that patch of water for hours of bathing and diving time, though it isn't too deep.
On a grey, overcast day, I was standing by the house watching the mallards splash around, when something happened to catch my eye. I did a double-take as I focused on a magnificent creature standing completely still at the edge of the forest, focusing on the unsuspecting ducks. I was far enough away so that I could slip back inside to grab my phone. I tried getting some shots of him, but since he was a bit far away, the pictures weren't exactly sharp. In the haze of fresh spring greenery and even a slight mist in the air, this male stood there, tail down, majestic in ways words cannot describe. It took my breath away. Within seconds he got wind of me, and on light feet, without snapping so much as a twig, he disappeared back into the cover of the trees behind him.
The mallards never even noticed him or recognised that they had made a narrow escape that day. And as often as I scanned the woods at dusk or dawn for weeks after, I never caught a glance of him again.
We have many coyotes that use our property as their main highway at night as they cross the street from the vineyards across the way to get to the thicket behind our property. We see them so often. They see us but we don't bother them and they hurry along their way. But to be able to see this coywolf felt almost surreal. People talk about coywolf sightings, especially along the escarpment properties because they are not a common occurrence. They are magnificent creatures and I hope that they continue to thrive in this beautiful area we call home.
Lolita Schimann Hale
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