Coyotes Close - My Side of the Mountain

We have a resident pack of coyotes here.  I occasionally hear them yipping up the hill and night, and despite knowing the stats about what a low risk they are, the sound still makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. It is definitely a very wild sound, and much more welcome than car alarms.  The local coyotes are a regular trigger for the camera traps, but I have never seen one here in person until yesterday morning.  Just out our kitchen window, trotting smoothly across the hill up behind our neighbors house, was a healthy looking red coyote.  The neighbor had mentioned seeing one out there a week or so ago.  This morning, it went trotting by just at the opportune time my camera was taken apart for downloading pictures.  I think I'll name the coyote Murphy...

Luckily I have some images from the set up the hill, it is very nearby, and likely the same individual, or at least from the same pack.  Most of the images from that spot are black and white IR night shots, but I have one from during daylight where you can see the nice coat color.  The coyote looked a little shaggier when the photo was taken a few months ago, it looked almost brushed out now.

This individual was inspecting the camera after a curious human passer by had unsuccessfully tried to remove it from a tree, and left it at ground level.  Bushnell isn't great on the close focus, but very nice on the anti-theft options!

I do have to wonder if the coyote's new bold appearance has anything to do with the new neighbor recently letting their four coyote-naive cats outdoors.  Although cats don't make up a large part of the coyote's diet, they are not one to pass up on that opportunity.   The timing was uncanny.

Hopefully someday I'll be lucky enough to discover where these residents are denning, and attempt to get some shots like these amazing images captured by RandomTruth (Warming: incredibly cute).  Until then, I'll be happy with some nice pics of the adults.  The two sightings were both during daylight hours, so I'm hopeful for some additional color shots.

References and articles:
http://www.projectcoyote.org/
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/science/28coyotes.html?_r=2&ref=science&pagewanted=1
http://www.mnh.si.edu/mna/image_info.cfm?species_id=29
http://www.science.smith.edu/departments/Biology/VHAYSSEN/msi/pdf/i0076-3519-079-01-0001.pdf