Derek Allard of Easthampton went to the Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary in Easthampton with his camera Dec. 3 to see if he could find the red-headed woodpecker he had seen a few weeks earlier. He staked out a position right at the tree line and shot photos for 45 minutes or so of the bird. Then he heard a rustling in the woods to his right and turned and saw five to six deer. Suddenly a big puff of white appeared. It was a coyote moving toward him. “I believe it was attempting to circle the deer,” he wrote in an email. “I didn’t move and initially the coyote didn’t notice me but when it did, it paused and I was able to get this photo. I was about 10 yards from the coyote … it was amazing!” One of the woodpecker photos he shot is at right.
Allard says he is a frequent visitor to Arcadia on weekend mornings: “It’s going to be tough to top this adventure for a while, though!”
Photos by DEREK ALLARD OF EASTHAMPTON
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