Black 'yote

I drove up north of Ellaville, GA on US 19 late this evening, looking for the road to a friend's where I've been invited to come and hunt.

On the way back, just north of where GA 26 crosses, a black something crossed the divided highway in front of me and jumped the guardrail. I was pretty sure it was canine, but it looked odd, so I slammed on the brakes and crossed the road to see it.  I stood on the big 8x8 guardrail supports and looked, and as it got to the edge of the trees, it stopped and looked at me.  A pretty big, solid black coyote.  I've seen lots of very large coyotes in the south.  This one wasn't all that big, but was clearly a coyote and not a dog.  Thing is, it was solid black.  I've never seen one, other than in pictures (http://bit.ly/d8W5ug) has a few Georgia 'yote pics, especially some from the Georgia Outdoor News forums.

It only stared at me for a few seconds, then a car went by and it slipped into the treeline.  When it was out of sight, I howled at it, and got a bark in response.

I knew they existed (this article discusses them), but had never seen one.  As I was leaving the house, I was thinking I should have grabbed my camera, but I decided that my cell phone camera was enough.  It wasn't; all I got is blurry trees.  Yeah, I'm sure it's a 'yote, not a dog, even though there are black dogs on the property a half mile up the hill.  If you've seen - or more importantly heard - coyotes in the southeast, you know one when you see and hear it clearly.

Way cool.