WW - Just Passing Through?

Fantastic Mr. Fox?

Well, I don't know if this fox is a he or she but we've become a regular stopover.  Paid off for the fox yesterday because it dug up bread I tossed out in the snow the day before and found the bird that met its demise against our window pane.  I'd swept it off the deck into the snow.  Here is the photo sequence and if you're squeamish skip the last ones.

Poor Prognosticator

Saturday, a chilly day, the ground hog showed up.  Now according to my calendar it's still winter.  Don't know why it was awake or what it found to eat.  I had noticed that an area under the deck had been dug out but attributed it to the raccoons mischief.  Now I think it was the ground hog digging itself out from underneath there, but a bit too early.

Here's where I saw that something had opened up a hole under the deck.

Here's the ground hog.

The birds know its not Spring yet.

The fox trots through each morning.

And now today we have a 4 inch snow fall.

No more signs of the ground hog.

Just the birds madly feeding.

A Regular Stop

Wild things have habits and the fox has made our backyard a regular stop in its search for nourishment. After the last snow we could see the deer hoof prints in a straight line and then the fox foot prints in large circles.  Searching circles. 

I took this set of photos in the last hour.  It had obviously found the dead bird that was outside a bedroom window for days, frozen because I could see it in its mouth.  I then checked to see if the bird was gone and it was.





I wonder if it got the mouse I threw out of the trap several days ago?   That mouse got unlucky because it was caught in a trap that had no bait.  I baited traps yesterday with peanut butter because I thought I heard a mouse in the kitchen the night before.  Two traps went into the garage and one into the mud room.  This morning I had two mice caught in the garage.  Those went out into the snow.  I wonder if the fox found them.

It's a lovely creature.  I'm glad it feels so at home here to come up on my deck.

Tally - Ho!

Isn't that what's called on a fox hunt?  What does the fox call when it hunts?

We've been seeing the fox in the last week just passing through along the edge of the glen heading east each time.

This morning it was hunting in the backyard.  First it went for the mourning doves under the bird feeder then chased a squirrel that found refuge climbing one of the beams on the deck.



It obviously was hungry and took off running after something then returned twice.



Forgive the photos.  It was constantly on the move.

Don't know if its related to this one or this one or even this one.

Linking to Eileen's Critters

Morning Visitor

A fox came visiting this morning outside my study window.  It was oblivious to me but was captivated by something under the snow because it kept pouncing and digging after something.  It never caught whatever it was and finally trotted off.

It's coat and tail were fluffed up from the cold but it was a fine specimen and it can come hunting anytime it wants to.

Wordless Wednesday

Resident Fox

Our resident fox came visiting this morning. I first saw him in the perennial garden and he was favoring his right front paw. He stopped in one of those flower beds and licked and gnawed on that paw for awhile. When he headed through the backyard towards the pond I figured I had a chance to catch him on camera. Sure enough he worked his way around the pond and above he is headed toward the suet feeder pole.


He came on towards my window in my study.

Stopped and looked right at me as if he was posing for my camera.

Then headed off on his rounds limping as he went.

I hope he heals.

A Fox Visitor

We have had a fox visit us this last week. The unusual thing is that it comes around during the day. I always thought of a fox as nocturnal. It has become very comfortable coming right up on the deck, eating dead stink bugs. Yesterday I took these photos of our regular visitor.

Notice his bushy tail? It's almost as long as the rest of his body.