The Day The Coyotes Came By For Lunch

After some particularly egregious vandalism last October, I took an old mostly broken DV video cam out of my drawer and hooked it up to an old mostly broken laptop that I set up under the front porch, with the cam pointed down the front steps to the sidewalk. Since then, not counting the computer crashes (which were pretty plentiful), the not-very-dynamic low-tech duo has been sending a low-res still as a webcam image every time something triggered a sensor in the computer program I used, and it’s also archived all the images together as Quicktime timelapse movies that up until last month I reviewed with regularity.

I dub the implementation of the rough-rigged surveillance system a complete success because there hasn’t been a single vandal seen since.

In their lowlife place I’ve captured stills of squirrels, various birds, skunks, of course our cats, opossums, raccoons, delivery persons, Gas Co. and LADWP meter readers, myself, Susan, any visiting friends, family, or neighbors and the occasional Jehovah’s witness or other such uninvited solicitor. Once I even got a blurry thing beelining it down the center of our street that I was pretty sure was a coyote, but couldn’t be conclusive.

Well, in reviewing the lengthy timelapse file that I hadn’t checked since February 11, I’ve now got that conclusion as bright as day. Literally. Check out the bold pair* of coyotes who dropped by at 11 a.m. on a rainy February 15 for more than five minutes, like they owned the place (click any the series for the bigger pictures).

*There is a chance it’s just one coyote, but a pair of them has been active in the neighborhood these past few weeks — the very same pair I chased a pair out of our neighbors yard and up the street a couple weeks ago.

What coyote? Check out the ears and eyes just emerging there above the top step.

The first one has arrived!

Not quite a minute later, there comes the second one.

Check out the rest of the pix after the jump.

A couple minutes later having unsuccessfully found any of our cats to eat, one of them exits.

Down on the sidewalk the first to leave waits for the second to follow.

The very definition of  brazen: Despite a clueless pedestrian across the street, Coyote No.1 just stands there on the sidewalk 15 seconds later waiting for its lollygagging partner.

Who doesn’t show for another minute-plus!

Twenty-three seconds after the second one leaves another pedestrian passes through the frame, completely unaware.