Maniacal Laughter Is One Description - UPDATE

Admittedly these are not the best pictures.  However, under the circumstances it's the best I could do.  If you click on them they'll open larger making them a little easier to see.

This is a follow up to the "Maniacal Laughter Is One Description" posting from earlier in the week and it confirms my suspicion 100% percent!

As I do every morning when I first get out of bed I look out the back window.  In part to do a cursory inspection of the chicken coop but also to see what Mother Nature has in store for the coming day.

So, just before 6:00 this morning, while performing said routine, I was shocked to see a new visitor.  A new visitor in terms of the first time I'd seen this particular critter in our yard in the 15+ years that we've lived here!

A coyote!  A very BIG and inquisitive coyote!

He was next to the chicken coop, and as you can see if the first picture his attention was focused intently on the coop.  I suspect the girls were beginning to stir and their rustling caught his ear.

However, from what I saw that was the extent of his fascination with the girls.  He poked around a bit longer then slowly moved on through the next door neighbors back yard.

I'll inspect all around the coop, when I make my way out there shortly to feed and water everyone, to ensure he or anyone else for that matter didn't attempt to dig in. 

 Perhaps, since the coop is wrapped in plastic visiting predators like coyotes and foxes are unable to see the chickens and therefore tend to leave them alone.  Thinking back to an incident with a fox, one morning, over the summer when there was no plastic.  The girls could clearly see the fox, with only chicken wire separating them, so when he'd lunge the girls would panic and fly this way and that way.  All that did was encourage more of the same from the fox and turn him on more to the possibility of a chicken breakfast.

We also now need to be very careful when bring Trixie-dog out with us when feeding the animals.  She's the perfect size for a coyote, as big as the one pictured above, to grab and run off with.