Saturday, September 4, 2010

Post 101

My 100th post here was almost 2 months ago, something I only just realized. I've been remiss in regular postings this summer, but here are some cool things I've seen in the field in only the last two days:

When inspecting a tract of land on Wolf Bay (south Baldwin County, AL) with botanist Alvin Diamond of Troy University on Sept. 2, we heard a loud splashing near the marsh. Upon investigating, there were a couple of dolphins in the shallows chasing fish [edit: John Dindo tells me they were more likely courting]. There are fewer and fewer places left in Alabama where you can see a dolphin near a shoreline of natural forest, but here's one:


The following day (yesterday) I was in Monroe County to conduct the annual monitoring on a 4,000 acre conservation easement. As I drove through a large planted wildlife food plot around 4:00 PM, I noticed a black animal standing at the far end, perhaps 150 yards away. I wasn't sure what I was seeing even as I photographed it:

With a little enlargement, it's evidently a melanistic coyote, and apparently a young one. I've never seen a black coyote before.


As I left the property, I came upon this congregation of Gulf fritillaries on fresh coyote scat in the road. Butterflies on feces make me smile.

4 comments:

cschnuelle said...

Wow, I would love to spend the day riding around with you and Karan on some of your jaunts!

Margaret said...

Love the dolphin photo! The coyote is pretty neat too.

Margaret

Carol said...

How lucky to get that shot of the black coyote.

Anonymous said...

The coyote kind of looks like a fox.