Sunset on the Prairie

As the days grew shorter in November the sunsets came early and were so awesome over the prairie to the west of the house. As dusk appeared and Morris was still not home from his day’s work down at the Johnston Home Place, I would  stand at one of the south windows and watch and worrying as I searched for the headlights on his pickup truck to turn up the road and head north toward home.

 If the cows, all 18 of them, or just 17 of them and one still out there,  had not decided to come up to the barn for their evening feed, he would have to walk out in the pasture and herd them into the lot south of the barn and milk them before his days work was done and he could relax and eat his supper. His days work were long and tiring.

As I watched from the south window in the nursery for his truck to appear I would hear the coyotes singing their evening song, which was frightening to this small town gal! Morris would laugh at me for being afraid and tell me they were far away from the house and only calling to each other. I sometimes heard them howling and yapping at each other off and on all night long.

Their song is a very high-pitched wail, sharp howls and "screams", which go up and down scale very rapidly. They have often been reported as "a sound like something being killed." Coyotes can be seen traveling alone or in pairs. On occasion large groups are present, and they sometimes hunt in packs.

The preferred habitat for coyotes is a prairie or grassland habitat that provides the food and shelter they most desire. Their diet consists mostly of small mammals such as rabbits, mice, carrion, fruits, and plants. If the rabbit population was slim and they got the taste of a new born calf, it was sometimes beyond changing their habits and then they were hunted down!  For the most part coyotes live both on the edge of our physical environments as well as on the fringes of our imaginations, cunning, wary, and the epitome of a true survivor. They are the tricksters in numerous Native American legends.

The ducks flying overhead in their V formation were also a reminder that winter was on its way. It was a delight to watch them. I always wondered where they had summered and where they were headed for the winter.

Once Morris shot a couple of Geese  out of season and I had to clean them before the game warden came by! I had never even cleaned a chicken before in my life, and the feathers on those geese were very stubborn. It was indeed a learning experience for both of us! I decided the taste of them was not worth the work to clean them.  He soon learned that he would rather shot the wildlife with a camera than with a gun.