Sunrise 7:23: Cavorting with Christmas coyotes

On a crystal clear and frosty Christmas morning, the female Dawn Jogger headed out for a run at Arastradero with new photo companion, Clario, in her pocket. Clario is a Lumix 100 which features a very capable Leica lens and large 12 MP sensor. Those twin features make for very sharp photos - even at long distances. It got a robust inaugural workout. At first the female DJ was going to try for some distance shots - she could see much so far away - the three local peaks, Tamalpais, Diablo and Hamilton; three bridges, Dumbarton, San Mateo and Bay, the cities of San Francisco and Oakland. There have been few clearer days. But then she was joined on the trail by two coyotes, one of which seemed to have a shimmering gold Christmas collar. They ambled down the hillside about 100 yards ahead of her (they're a bit hard to spot in the top horizontal photo but one is in front of the center bush and its companion is to the left), turning from to time to time to chart her progress and then disappeared around a turn. When she made the turn. she found they'd moved off the trail onto a still mostly brown meadow - and in somewhat closer view. Clario came through with the best coyote shots ever. The male DJ was equally impressed with the results. Christmas blessings to all...