Coyote song
21/08/16 05:33
I woke to the sound of coyotes singing in the night. At first I thought that it was a relatively large group, but when I stopped to think, I remembered that coyotes usually sound like there are more of them than there are. It was probably a small pack, with a few of this year’s pups to add the high soprano to the chorus. We used to hear the coyotes every summer night when we first moved to South Dakota, but it has been a long time since I’ve hear them back home. Coyote populations rise and fall due to a large number of factors including disease and the presence of other predators. Coyotes are not what are termed apex predators. They are sort of nature’s clean up crew. They are opportunistic feeders, eating what is available, primarily mice and other small rodents.
We almost always heard coyotes singing from airport hill when I was a kid growing up. They are adaptive animals and seem to adjust to humans pretty easily. Humans, however, generally don’t like coyotes for neighbors. In my growing up years they were considered to be varmints and were shot on sight by most of the ranchers in the area. They will, on occasion, take a small farm animal and are particularly dangerous around sheep and I grew up in sheep country. However, a donkey, a good dog, or a llama will usually protect the sheep from coyotes. They're pretty easy to run off. Furthermore, they have adapted to pressures from other species quite well. The more they are hunted, the higher their birth rate. They will reproduce in response to population pressures and seem to survive even the most intense hunting. The bounty on coyotes that was part of my growing up years might have caused near extinction, but it didn’t. They simply found different places to hide and raise their pups.
In Montana, where I grew up, and in South Dakota, where I now live, we pronounce coyote without the long e at the end that is the more common Spanish pronunciation. I know that the majority of people in our country pronounce it with three syllables, but our two-syllable pronunciation is a local variation. The coyote is the mascot of South Dakota State University and our unique pronunciation of the name is part of local lore and charm.
Here, in central Washington, where we are camped on our way west, however, I’m pretty sure that the local pronunciation has the long e at the end. There have been Spanish-speaking farmers in this country for a long time - more than a century. Some families have lived in the area for generations. You’ll often hear Spanish spoken in gas stations and restaurants as you travel through the region and there was plenty of Spanish in the campground last night. It wouldn’t surprise me if the coyotes call themselves by the Spanish pronunciation in this area.
This is dry country, with the only green in late August coming from irrigated land. The central, volcanic valleys and plains of central Washington have been irrigated since the 1930’s with the construction of the giant Grand Coulee Dam. The project, proposed in the 1920’s was controversial in the beginning. The huge cost combined with the relatively small local population resulted in light support for the project in the beginning. somehow, however, the work was approved and the local population swelled during the construction of the dam and attendant infrastructure. The huge dam is the largest hydro electric producing facility in the United States. The abundant electricity attracted industry during the Second World War and people came into the area to work at the aluminum plants producing resources for the war. The population has been shrinking since the end of the war and these days the irrigated farms are gigantic, with massive machines working the land and huge fields. The fruit business, however, cannot be pursued on the same large scale and is more labor intensive. Along the river, there are many orchard operations with clusters of houses surrounding them for all of the summer workers. It is interesting country to visit and we enjoy the ability to purchase fresh fruit when we travel in this area.
In the past five years, since we have been grandparents, we’ve made at least one trip across this country each year. We enjoy spending as much time as possible with our grandchildren and travel has become a priority for us. We can make the trip to Washington from South Dakota in three days. We usually make one of those days a bigger day trying to get in more than 500 miles. The other days are a bit shorter. We like to have the last day short enough to get in a good visit with our family before bedtime. We also like to arrive refreshed and not too tired so that we have energy to participate in the activities of our family. Today is a relatively short run. We should arrive at our son’s home in the early afternoon. We will stay at a familiar campground that is close to their home and our grandson can have sleepovers at our camper. Since our son and grandson flew out to meet us in Montana last week, it hasn’t been long since we’ve seen them, but our granddaughter and daughter-in-law weren’t able to join them on that visit, so we’re eager to see the entire family.
By the time we get to the coast the weather and culture will have shifted dramatically. Western Washington is filled with people and traffic and industry. We will also see the dramatic shift from high plains desert to temperate rain forest as we pass over the Cascade mountains this morning. There aren’t many trees where we camped last night. Tonight we’ll be in a grove of 150-foot tall cedars, hemlock and Douglas fir. There probably won’t be any coyotes singing in the forested urban area where we’re heading.
It’s good to travel and experience change and see the countryside, but we are eager for family time and glad to put the miles behind us. All too soon it will be time to head for home again.