Ah-ooooooooo!

Now that I'm spending more time in the country I'm getting to know where I live. Last night as I was drifting off to sleep a coyote got to whooping and hollering, seemingly just outside my window. It gave a complicated performance consisting of rhythmic yelps and howls that broke upward in the middle by a diminished fifth. (The Devil's interval, banned by the medieval church.) The concert lasted two or three minutes, with the pattern of yelps and howls varying throughout. Later, after midnight, presumably a different individual, or at least it was a different song, somewhat farther away, gave a brief, simple performance consisting of four howls with slight downward inflection.

They apparently do this to tell other males to stay out of their territory, and invite the females in if they are so inclined. (When I try it it doesn't seem to work.) But for a predator to announce its presence so assertively seems awfully sporting. As I say, the turkeys can fly up into the trees.