It was summer. At that period of the year, the sky is bright by 4:30 am. I was awake, not much choice about it since the bedroom windows face east. It was so bright in there that one could have read even though the metal blinds were shut.
That’s when I heard it:
“Aoooowwww, Aoooowwww, Aoooowwww. Yap! Yap! Yap! Yap! Hiiii… Hiiii… Hiiiii!”
Then, a second or later, the echo coming back, distant, fainter but still clearly audible…
A few more seconds passed, and there it was again:
“Aoooowwww, Aoooowwww, Aoooowwww. Yap! Yap! Yap! Yap! Hiiii… Hiiii… Hiiiii!”
Again, the echo came back.
I got out of bed. The sound appeared to coming from behind the house. Somewhere near the vineyard. I went to the kitchen, which has a window and door facing that general direction. I saw nothing through the window. I opened the door and went out. The sound came again. Three wolf-like howls; a short pause; then three Chihuahua yaps followed a second later by what sounded like a horse whinnying.
I scanned the hillside. What the heck was it? Then I saw it: a coyote, sitting on his behind, ears perked up, head cocked slightly to the side, listening for the echo. It’s amazing how their colouring allows them to blend so perfectly with the surrounding vegetation.
Satisfied with the result, he pointed his head up, pursed his lips and howled three times again, then looking down yapped three times, following it with the horse sound that he produced by stretching his neck out, the sound clearly coming from the sides of his muzzle and imparting it with a perfect vibrato.
Finished, he straightened up, ears nice and straight, and cocked his head to catch the echo from the neighbouring hill.
He repeated this for more than 10 minutes while I watched from the kitchen door. It was clear that he was enjoying the sound of his own voice. Every time the sounds he produced were exactly the same. I felt like I was watching a politician practising a speech.
When he stopped, he got up, looked in my direction, and with a broad wag of his tail and a big grin trotted off up the hill and over the crest, clearly a happy coyote.