By David Horst
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| You never know what you'll see out of our window to wildlife |
We were looking out the window to wildlife in our living room one evening. About 10 deer and a pair of sandhill cranes were out there. I believed them to be the same cranes we had seen several days earlier.
On that evening, one crane landed and then the other. The first started running in a straight line with its wings stretched out. It looked pretty threatening, so I assumed it was territorial. This display went on for a bit until it became clear these were not two males drawing a line in the sand. They were a couple having a roll in the hay. The show might happen again, so we were keeping an eye out.
The deer were acting oddly. They looked around nervously and flashed their flags – the white underside of their tails – signaling danger. Then the deer were on the move. They closed ranks and took off east. Shot from the brush came a low, brown, speeding figure. It was a coyote and it was gaining. It also was getting near to the cranes, 4-foot-tall birds that need some time and space to get airborne.
The coyote was just performing its role at the top of the food chain. Actually, they call it a food web now. It’s more complicated than just a straight chain. But seeing the coyote claim the rights that go with being at the top of the web was not going to be pretty.
As it turned out, the cranes took their cue from the deer and had made short work of getting up higher than a coyote’s leap. The deer bolted into the woods. The coyote made an about-face and raced back to the west.
The evening light was dimming, but the deer all appeared to have escaped, as had the cranes.
I’m perfectly aware that an individual one way or the other won’t make a bit of difference in the deer population. Coyotes gotta eat, too. But I was cheering for the deer.
Everybody still holds their positions on the food web, so the scene is likely to be repeated, possibly with a different ending.
The cranes returned quickly after the coyote disappeared. They settled down into the hay field. One stretched out its neck and ran with its head down.
That’s another force in nature that continues the food web.
