Long time resident and prolific author Carl Addison Swanson writes:
I woke up Friday night to an animal whining and shrieking with a strange, terrifying sound. My neighbor confirmed it was a coyote who was sunning itself in his backyard the next day.
Since we have a small terrier. I called the game warden. He answered promptly and informatively.
He said that coyotes are now in a “transitory” period. The male and female leave the den, searching for food for the winter.
Do you know what to do when you see a coyote?
The awful sound I heard was coyotes taking down a deer in the woods bordering our back yard. They are afraid of humans. but “any animal under 20 pounds” should be supervised, he said.
If confronted, coyotes do not like loud noises. They will run.
I ordered an air horn. I intend to blast the hell out of their temporary “den.”
The warden said their permanent den is on Bayberry Lane. But because of construction , they are moving along while for the coming cold weather.
I live off North Avenue, near Bedford Middle School. Beware!
Can anyone recommend an air horn/coyote deterrent to have on hand for small dog owners
no, but I can recommend an airthorn for blasting the ears of small dogs owners and their dogs.
Yes, “Sea Sense” Air Horn on amazon.com is cheap and works great.
I remember when a side street off North Avenue had mail labeled RD, or Rural Delivery. I guess for coyotes, things haven’t changed much.
I had a friend at Twin Circle Drive, RD 5, and the RD stood for Rural Delivery to house # 5. I can even remember his name now, but I won’t mention it.
I have had a coyote family living in my yard this past summer. Comprised of a beautiful female and three pups, this family makes God awful noises at night. The female is often seen just strolling through my yard in the late afternoon- I’m thinking that she is going out for dinner! I have lived in my house for 36 years and only saw a coyote occasionally. It has become a common occurrence. What’s up with that?
we take their land/dens, they move into your yard, is what’s up with that.
Not exactly. Coyotes are not native to CT having first shown up in the state in the 1950’s. While it is possible a coyote could be displaced, more likely what we are seeing is simply a growth in their population.
Aside from humans, coyotes don’t really have any predators which has allowed their population to grow. Since we don’t control the deer (or other animal) population either, their food source is growing thus supporting a growing coyote population.
https://portal.ct.gov/DEEP/Wildlife/Fact-Sheets/Coyote
I can’t really say “blasting the hell out of their temporary den” sounds very Dan Woog-ish – or kind.
Well, they weren’t my words. The story comes from Carl Addison Swanson.
Well, that makes more sense. Sorry to misattribute Carl’s words as yours.
Last week we had a comment complaining about deer, who we’re told “run rampant” because of the lack of natural predators, including coyotes. Today we have a comment complaining about coyotes for hunting deer. Sounds like people just want to eradicate nature entirely. To which I say: move out of Westport, pronto. You can’t live in a natural setting and be immune from encounters with nature.
I’m disgusted by the thought of “blasting” animals who, as the poster noted, have already been driven out of their home by human activity. Anyone who intentionally disturbs wildlife should, IMO, be fined and at the least subject to public opprobrium. The answer, if you have a small dog or other animal, is to supervise them – not to try to drive out animals who are already on the run, during a period of time that’s critical for their survival.
Coyote alert? How about human encroachment alert? Take precautions with your pets, and live and let live.
No one said they were going to kill it. Pump the brakes, champ…
“Blasting the hell out of it” with an airhorn isn’t much better.
Human encroachment alert? More like coyote encroachment alert. They aren’t native to the state having migrated from the west and first showing up in the 1950’s.
We now have regular sightings in our neighborhood (Pumpkin/Colony) during the daylight hours and hear them howling/shrieking late at night. Two large coyotes attacked our dog in the backyard at 9:30am and did not budge when we yelled at them. (we didn’t leave our dog unattended). We have a lot of deer in our neighborhood and now coyotes are here too. We now have to carry an air horn when walking the dog esp my 12 year old who does most of the dog-walking. I understand these animals have a right to thrive but they are predatory and dangerous to our kids unlike our groundhog, deer herds, wild turkey flocks and the occasional red fox.
Coyotes don’t prey on humans. Just stay out of their way.
My family and I moved to North Haven – about a mile and a half from Sleeping Giant. Besides the usual animals – squirrels, wood chucks, chipmunks, owls, deer – there are hungry coyotes, bears, hawks, fox and bob cats. We watch our domestic pets closely every day – unfortunately there are many posts on local social media from people who have missing cats :/
We also have a lot of wild rabbits and the familiar raccoons lol
Next week: “squirrel alert!” A concerned resident reports their shock and horror upon learning that squirrels throw nuts from trees, threatening to dent their BMW. They tell us there is no natural predator for squirrels, since we have blasted the coyotes and foxes and bears to smithereens with air horns to protect our free-range Pomeranians. The solution? Clear-cut the land!
Just cut off the coyotes access to Acme Corp products and they will soon leave town.
Here in Saint Paul – a city of 300,000 – we have coyotes in our backyard daily. Mostly at dawn and again at dusk. They are particularly drawn to the pear trees and grapevines in our yard when they have fruit on them. They are not very shy and will come into the yard as singles even when we are in the yard as well.
We have learned to co-exist.
They howl as a group at night when they make a kill or if they hear a police siren.
The coyotes’ normal territory here has moved up from the Mississippi flats and into the residential areas of city.
In addition to learning to co-exist, a DNR friend had two suggestions to make the yard less attractive to the coyotes: 1) get the fruit off the ground when it drops. 2) squirt them with water if possible. With a garden hose or “Hyposquirt.” (Perhaps Acme makes such a device!)
Apparently they do not like to be sprayed with water and then move on (um, to the neighbors). However after three years of waiting I have not gotten a squirt in.
After googling coyote, I have no doubt that the photo is that of a coyote but has anyone seen one that looked anything like the photo?
Of the dozen coyotes I have seen here over the last 20+ years most were about half that size and appeared much scrawnier.
On average the coyote is rather small but they have mated with dogs and have grown considerably. As for “blasting the hell” out of their temporary den, after they took down three deer over the weekend? It worked. I grew up here in the 50’s where one never saw a wild animal but that is when they had woods to live. Thanks to the developers, they have no place to find a natural habitat. Another sign of “progress” in a town where real estate money is King .
We love animals. There is an abundance of woodchucks, squirrels, three bird feeders which provide 100’s of birds their daily bread, wild turkeys and deer who occupy our back yard. But when a wild animal threatens our Marine Corps service dog, there will be “hell” to pay. Perhaps we can trap the predators and move them to all the “coyotes cult” who seem to love them?
I grew up in Westport but have lived in Vermont for 40 years. If we are talking about wildlife issues, the very least we can do is know how to correctly identifying what we’re looking at (and sadly, sometimes demonizing. The picture above that is identified as a coyote is a wolf. https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q%3Dtbn:ANd9GcRQ0gXKroGwmeylf3EfGVxAqc4ofghQj6YHRYxhlbB00_UOXb9S&imgrefurl=https://www.quora.com/Some-large-coyotes-look-like-wolves-while-some-small-wolves-look-like-coyotes-So-whats-the-real-difference-Is-there-a-distinct-dividing-line-between-wolves-and-coyotes&h=292&w=602&tbnid=rdVzUx6uLKTsjM&tbnh=156&tbnw=323&osm=1&hcb=1&usg=AI4_-kSlSq1BqtO2uv5yGJ3jevd9vtkGAA&docid=6SnRayybmFqMgM&hcb=1
Please be responsible for and respectful of your wild residents, and at the very least know who they are.
Thanks Hilary, I stand corrected, I was fooled by all the google images falsely describing wolves as coyotes, Your link was far more useful. Thanks for setting us straight, Jerry
You’re welcome, Jerry. Reading it again, I’m horrified by my failure to proof my own comment (Westport schools were so much better than that!) but those pictures do speak a thousand words.
I recall a letter to either the Westport News or Minuteman, probably twenty years ago, when someone ranted about the wild turkeys threatening the safety of their children.
Some of the “screaming” that people might hear outside are foxes, which can make a heck of a vocal racket, bloodcurdling.
Finally, cats won’t go missing if people keep them inside. Free roaming cats (both ferals and wandering housecats) decimate wild bird populations. If the coyotes are snatching them – hey, at least it is helping to protect the native bird population.
Amen, Chris. I enjoy a wealth of birds on the feeders outside my windows because my cat population has lived indoors for many years after it was clear that they were in the business of killing as many birds as they could catch. The other thing that became clear was that living at the edge of Vermont’s Green Mountain National forest made my indoor/outdoor cats prey for many animals, some of the same predators that also enjoy the plenty of the suburbs.