8:54 pm Standing on the sandy levee of the South Canadian River when the regular evening twilight coyote chorus erupted a few hundred yards down stream on the far side of the river. It always seems to start from there. After a moment it was matched by the coyotes on my side of the river. Maybe 3-4 coyotes on the far side and fewer, 2-3, on my side. The twilight howl lasted only 3-4 minutes then silence returned but it felt good to know that I was sharing the twilight with others. I wondered who was the timekeeper and what was the signal?
Peaceful sunset 20-30 minutes earlier. Golden horizon lighting sparse ranks of clouds in the mostly clear northern sky. The red and gold, tinting the river water with evening color, and producing silhouettes of the big cottonwoods over by the sunset.
Whip-poor-wills, three or four were competing with their calls. I watched a last late turkey vulture awkwardly join a half dozen others settling in to a roost for the night in a tall cottonwood across the river.
The river was flowing with good volume from the 1.1 inch rain last night. Not a flood, but all the usual sand bars and small islands were submerged.
Before sunset I watched one beaver pushing west across the big flooded sand mine pond.
Peaceful evening.
