Dear Parkwood Neighbors,
Starting today, Nov. 26, 2011, there is a new menu heading along the top of the PGC website. Go to http://www.parkwoodgardenclub.com, look at the top menu bar, and on the righthand side you’ll see the menu item “Coyotes” following the “Neighbors” item. The exact position of the “Coyotes” heading will depend on the width of your browser window, but it’ll be up there somewhere. When you see a coyote in Parkwood, you will be able to report it immediately here on the website by posting a comment on this post you’re reading now. So how will this work? Please read the whole article below before posting any sightings.
Instructions for posting a coyote sighting on this post:
1. Click on the “Coyote” heading along the top menu bar of the website homepage. It will pull up this post onto the main page for viewing.
2. At the bottom of the post, you will see “—> Leave a Reply” or “Leave a Comment.”
3. Click on it. Then type in your current coyote sighting.
4. Before navigating away, click “Post Comment.”
5. PLEASE make your comment meaningful to others by including the following info:
- a.) The date
- b.) The approximate time
- c.) The location such as street address, intersection, landmark, etc.
- d.) What exactly did you see in terms of numbers of coyotes, behaviors, vocalizations, any food (or pets) carried, direction of travel, etc.
- e.) Your name so that concerned neighbors can contact you for more info if they so desire. You may also include your address or contact info.
- f.) Any other coyote-related info, such as past sightings made by you, how it made you feel to see coyotes here, how your own behavior might change in response to seeing coyotes in Parkwood, etc.
Just as importantly, if you end up posting a sighting, you will probably want to be alerted automatically every time someone else leaves a coyote sighting here. If you do not subscribe to the comment thread on this post, you will miss additional sightings unless you constantly check back to the website and read this post again. Subscribing to the comment thread means that you will receive an email every time someone posts a coyote sighting to this post you choose to subscribe to. You can then read their comment/sighting in the email you receive.
Instructions for subscribing to the comment thread:
1. Follow steps 1-3 above.
2. After you write in your sighting, check the box that says, “Notify me of follow-up comments via email” before you click on “Post Comment.”
3. If you want to subscribe to the comment thread starting now (or any point in the future) but DO NOT have any coyote sightings to post, you have two options for subscribing to the thread without posting a comment. Read below instructions from Bolot.
It appears WordPress.com does not offer a way to subscribe to comments without leaving one. However, there are two workarounds. Solution number one:
1.) Fill out the comment form on this post that just says something like, “I want to be notified via email of any future coyote sightings posted to the website.” MAKE SURE you check the box “Notify me of follow-up comments via email,” then submit the comment. You will need to provide your email address and name.
2.) As an alternative, if you are familiar with RSS, you can subscribe to RSS feed of comments for this post. The details depend on your browser and news reader software. For example, in Safari you can click on the RSS button in the location bar (next to the reload button) and it will offer you three options: the RSS feed for the entire site, the RSS feed for all the comments on the entire site, or the RSS feed for the comments on the current post. Select the last one and you can copy the URL from the location bar and use it in your news reader. If you have no idea what this means, you can learn. You can contact Bolot with questions on how to subscribe via RSS feed; make sure you are sitting at your computer if you call. His contact info is in the printed Directory. If you don’t have a printed Directory, you can email webmaster@parkwoodgardenclub.com for an electronic Directory to be emailed to you if you joined the PGC for 2012.
If you are already subscribed to the website, you will NOT be alerted via email every time there is a sighting/comment posted to this post, UNLESS you ALSO subscribe yourself to this specific comment thread! There is a difference. If you want to be immediately alerted of new coyote sightings here, you will have to be proactive and subscribe yourself to the comment thread, as described above.
Any questions, email us! Thanks!
~ Rebecca and Bolot Kerimbaev, Communications Co-Chairs
Parkwood Garden Club 
I want to be subscribed, please.
Coexisting With Coyotes: Is It Working?
How Will We Know?
The current policy to “co-exist with coyotes” is being practiced our urban Atlanta community. No data, however, is being collected to determine how the coyotes are impacting the area.
People are losing pets and our populations of rabbits, raccoons, opossums, and feral and domestic cats have drastically decreased over the past few years in my neighborhood. Coyotes are known to be their predator. Buckhead communities are reporting routine coyote sightings during the day and in close proximity to their homes. A child was bitten in Cobb County when a coyote attached her dog on leash. A small child, in his own backyard in Cobb County, was being stalked by a coyote until his dog started barking and the child’s mother came to his aid. An older woman in Buckhead was walking her leashed dog when it was attached by a coyote. Is this acceptable “coexisting”?
It is only reasonable that the coyotes are attacking these animals for food. As the food supply is reduced and the coyotes multiply, what will be the results?
Coexistence will certainly require study and action. Human beings are the only predator for the coyote in our urban community. Are coyotes evolving into a species that realizes their only predator poses no threat? How will we, their only predator, tell the coyote that the “balance of co-existence” has gotten out of balance in their favor?
Your voice is needed now more than ever. Please also plan to attend the City of Decatur Council meeting*, Mon, December 5th at 7:30 p.m.. What happens in my front yard, affects your front yard. If you don’t speak out, how will we know if our “coexisting” is working or not?
*City Hall is located in downtown Decatur “on the square” 509 N. McDonough, next door to Eddie’s attic and across from the Court House and Chick Fil. The entrance to the meeting is on the backside of the City Hall building. The meeting starts at 7:30 p.m
Christy, re: the 2nd paragraph above, I know those observations and conclusions are anecdotal only, as, like you said, if no data is being collected to determine how coyotes are impacting the area, the observations reported in the 2nd paragraph could be nothing but anecdotal — a subjectively perceived impact of coyotes, incomplete, perhaps even incorrect. We should be careful when saying that populations of local, native wildlife have drastically decreased, when that is an assumption not based on any data. One might think these animals have decreased in numbers, when that might be an incorrect perception, or it may be due to other causes not related to coyotes. Again, if there is no data, one cannot defend that perception very convincingly. At this point, these are opinions and ideas, not factual data, if no data has been collected. Perhaps no data has been collected for Atlanta (again an assumption), but data on coyote predation HAS been collected in other major metropolitan areas in the U.S. that are comparable to Atlanta. At the Monday meeting, could you provide the sources of these Buckhead and Cobb Co. coyote attack reports, i.e., where they were published/reported so that attendees can read them? Also the data (if any) showing wildlife population declines due to coyote predation?
Please know that I am making every effort to be factual in my comments and that evidence of coyotes threatening humans is, to my own surprise, much more extensive than what I have mentioned. The one exception is my personal observation that the wildlife around our property has significantly diminished which I believe to be true. I do ask you to consider, however, that the absence of “statistical proof” does not in and of itself mean that the statement is not true. Hopefully you will feel more confident in the information I present Monday evening. See you then. Christy
This is a very helpful instruction. You have a very nice blog site and especially the theme header, very beautiful.
Just heard a cat cry out as tho being attacked/in a fight…9:15 p.m. Monday evening, Dec 12th towards 230-222 E. Parkwood. Too dark to see anything. Am hoping for the best. Christy
What: The “Pros and Cons of Trapping Coyotes”
When: Tuesday, Jan 31st, 7:00 P.M.
Where: Episcopal Church of the Epiphany, at E. Lake and Ponce (2089 Ponce de Leon Ave; Atlanta 30307); entrance drive is on East Lake
Who: Community at large
Community concern continues over the presence and impact of coyotes in our neighborhood. (See email below as one example.) This meeting will include a brief review of similar concerns in other communities (nationally and locally), and what they are doing about coyotes. Wildlife specialist and trapper Chip Elliot will share with us his knowledge and experience of 23 years. An update on establishing a central metro coyote reporting system will also be given.
Email received early January:
“I woke up in the night recently to terrible screaming and fighting sounds, and I ran barefoot into the backyard. A pack of coyotes was there — definitely 3-5 — and at least one had gotten into my neighbor’s barbed-wire pen of goats. A coyote was attacking them.
It was dark back there, but I screamed and yelled and chased them off. “By the time I woke the neighbors and they checked on the goats, the biggest of the goats, who is about 60/70 pounds, had puncture wounds in her neck. But is amazingly ok. She obviously was defending the much smaller goats. My neighbor put up more barbed wire, but found the coyotes too persistent and had to send the goats back to the farm they came from for fear they would be eaten.
“I did file a report on the Decatur News page — but WOW — if they are willing to come into a backyard and try to take down a LARGE goat, after hopping over a 5- foot fence topped by barbed wire, there’s no reason to think they wouldn’t attack kids.” Jennifer Palese, Decatur
Just saw a coyote just strolling across our patio..~ 8:45 p.m. Wed (2/8) as we were watching TV.Not sure which way it was heading…pitch black, lots of bushes,etc.
Wed, May 23, 2012. 11:45 PM.
Did anyone else around 234 E Parkwood (back end of Waverly Court) hear the howls, yips and barking frenzy around 11:45 PM last night!!??! I was working with my window open and COULD NOT BELIEVE MY EARS! It started suddenly with one howl, then 2 or 3…like dogs responding to a siren and quickly got louder and louder as I sat STUNNED trying to figure out what neighbors had dogs that remotely sounded like this….NONE! No dogs even live where this canine frenzied noise came from!! I have NEVER heard anything like it except on National Geographic. When I finally realized this was not normal, I ran to the outside and yelled “HEY!” in my alpha voice. DEAD SILENCE ensued!!! Not even the sound of dogs running away! Domestic dogs do not respond this way, especially when in a group.
This is the season when coyote pups have been born and they are likely being taught to hunt. PLEASE do not encourage them by leaving out your pets out at night. Just because we do not see these stealthy predators in our HEAVILY deciduous landscape does not mean they are not there. They are!! Christy
I heard it too, Christy, from 317 W Parkwood. I did not hear the howls. I thought i heard domestic dogs barking in response to what you must have heard. Surely, dogs would respond to such howling with their own barking on the tail end, which I think is what I was hearing. However, I do want to say that several nights ago, I really don’t know how long ago it was, maybe 2 weeks, I heard very distinctive and clear coyote howling coming from the creek behind my house. I am 100% certain it was no dog, but at least 2 coyotes. I had never heard a coyote’s howl before in person, but it was unmistakeable nonetheless. Personally, I enjoy the sound and don’t mind coyotes being here in an urban setting. To me, coyote range expansion and population densities are only upsetting on the coastal areas, where they have been introduced to various islands by thoughtless people and take tolls upon nesting shorebirds along with raccoons and mink, threatening their local populations and nesting sites. But here in the middle of the city, their “threat” can be avoided by keeping pets indoors where they belong for their own safety and longevity.