Wild Kingdom

One of the first things I noticed when we moved into our house was all of the wildlife - small animals, lizards, spiders, snakes, etc.  To me, that was a good sign.  Our neighborhood is older - some parts are about a hundred years old, but our area, in it's present state, is about sixty.  I felt like it was old enough that, once all the houses were built and everyone moved in, nature began slowly creeping back in.

Like I mentioned before, we have had lizards, skinks, garter snakes, rat snakes, spiders - from banana to black widow.  We've seen rodents, possums and raccoons, as well.  Now that we have chickens, we've seen lots of hawks and had a few problems with them, as well as possums or raccoons, but this tops it all - we had a coyote.

I knew that coyote sightings had been more frequent in recent years - there are some in nearby Mount Pleasant, and there are a few rare sightings here in Park Circle - but I never thought there would be one in our back yard.  Both Ella and I were half-asleep when we thought we heard something scaring the chickens.  She got up and out the door before I could, and she saw a coyote run away from our chicken coop toward the front yard.  From everything I've heard, a daylight appearance of a coyote is a rare event.  After talking with neighbors, it seems that we have more coyotes than I thought.  Apparently another neighbor has seen them congregate near his house a couple of blocks away.  I don't think it's something to start worrying about, but it is a sign that things are getting a little wilder in less dense urban areas like we live in.