Coyote

Saw my first coyote in the wild.  Never, to my knowledge, laid eyes on one anywhere else, actually.

It was during my morning commute, on the on-ramp to the DC beltway from Connecticut Avenue.  Practically in the shadow of the Mormon Temple.

It was in the open area between the road and the brush and seemed to be eating grass or something. Maybe a dead critter that I couldn't see.  Lots of groundhogs and deer in that vicinity as it is connected to Rock Creek Park.  That park ambles about a goodsome distance for miles and miles.  Bears have been sighted in that park IN DC.   (The Park proper is on the District of Columbia, though the creek outside the city limits is parkified and patrolled by the Park Police.  It ambles north through Maryland quite a ways, up through Rockville and touching Gaithersburg.)

When I first laid eyes on it I thought it was a HUGE brown fox with no bushy tail.  Then the brain clicked a bit.  Coyote.