Winter Coyote

I've often mentioned how much enjoyment I get from watching various Web cams pointed at the Grand Tetons and different landmarks in and around Yellowstone National Park (turn on sound if you're interested in the narrative) sitting far away at my computer in Chicago. I may have neglected to mention that there is also a live real-time cam overlooking the Upper Geyser Basin in Yellowstone, where the still cam points at Old Faithful geyser. The nice thing about the live streaming cam is that it is occasionally attended by folks who are fascinated by the multitudinous activities taking place there. They can pan and zoom, and for my thermal feature-addicted friends, focus in on whatever geyser or hot spring within view (Old Faithful, Beehive, Lion, many others) happens to be doing something hydrothermally interesting at any given moment. Besides being enormous draws for two-legged animals, lots of wildlife spends the cold, snowy winter months in the thermal basins to benefit from the warmth and resulting thin snow cover; bison and elk often appear; on very, very rare occasions during the shoulder seasons when there are few people around, a grizzly will sashay past the camera. More often, we see coyotes. My thanks to David M for following and recording this guy, in his gorgeous winter pelt, a couple of days ago.