Coyote and Sandhill Cranes

I saw the weirdest thing today.  I would call "balderdash" if somebody else were to tell me.

I was on my way to pick up my daughter at the throwing camp in Ohio.  It was 7:45 in the morning.

I was a half mile east of home when I saw an animal in the middle of a soybean field.  He was standing alone about 60 yards from the road.  It looked like a deer...but not quite.  It was the exact cinnamon shade of a mid-summer deer, it paced like a deer with high steps and straight-down foot plants.  But it was not quite right.

Looking a little more carefully it had a bushy tail tucked down between its hind legs and a pitbull-like face.

I backed up to get a clearer look and fully expected the animal, whatever it was, to book across the field.  But it did not.

And then I heard the prehistoric cry of some Sandhill Cranes.  How did I miss them?  The coyote was 40 yards from the cranes and was not about to give up now.  The cranes were dancing around, not quite comfortable with this funny deer that seemed to want their company.

So, my first conclusion is that coyotes have incredible learning ability.  They have the ability to mimic other animals for the purpose of stalking.  My other conclusion is that the local coyote population has a significant dose of domestic dog genes.

The other possibility is that it was an absolutely enormous red fox mousing in broad daylight in the middle of a soybean field.  It was fully 2/3 the height of the Sandhill Cranes.  Also, the face was not right.  But why would the cranes allow it to get so close?

And this is where my Redneck genes show up.  I really wanted a firearm so I could harvest the animal and see what it is.  At 60 yards a simple 22LR would be more than enough.