Dennis Paulson wrote:

>As a postscript, we have coyotes in our neighborhood, 3 miles north of the
>UW. Interestingly, although we've seen them on a number of occasions, I've
>never heard any howling. Either (a) they aren't the right sex/age/social
>status to do so, or (b) urban coyotes know when to shut up.

All the discussion of coyotes prompts me to chime in. A few weeks ago
when we were having our Osprey watch at Everett, one of the interesting
things we saw was a coyote trotting across the tidal mudflats west of
Smith Island. It was taking what appeared to be a young gull back to the
grassy part of Smith Island. About an hour later we saw another coyote
(darker color than the first) working the pilings that hold the many cormorant
nests. Many of the cormorants flew out to the water and watched from
the water. This coyote wasn't as successful as the first on this hunt but
it scampered about the base of the pilings for quite a while before
heading elsewhere.

Ed Schulz
Everett, WA
eschulz at eldec.com