March 1, 2021
It has been a long and gloomy winter and everyone I know is waiting anxiously for signs of Spring. Here on our little patch we had a little bit of excitement when we spotted fox tracks in the snow across the front lawn recently. Fox tracks are quite distinctive as they follow in a straight line, one behind the other. For us this is an exciting state of affairs as two years ago a mother fox raised 3 kits in our barn and we had hours of fun watching them at different times. Night after night the little ones would climb up onto Bruce's car and do a muddy foot print dance, followed by leaving muddy streaks down the front windshield as they slid off!!!! We were even able to catch sight of them now and then as we retuned to the house. They would peer curiously at us until their Momma reined them in and they would be gone in a flash,
We did not see our little fox family last year and we missed them but we have high hopes for this year. We like to think of our tangled acres as a refuge for wildlife.
While this is good news for the humans hereabouts it is perhaps not such good news for the rabbits which are prolific if the tracks are any indication.
In fact it almost seem from the picture below that they had a convention!!! Perhaps with the Fox family moving in the Rabbit families will move a little farther away for their safety!
On another wildlife-ish note, last fall we noticed small piles of dirt which appeared in the front lawn. Their numbers increased over time until there were about 20 piles. We suspect a mole immigration. This is new to our property. 30 years plus and nary a mole up until now. Once the snow fell, the piles disappeared and we wondered if the moles did too.too. However, as the snow has begun to melt the piles are reappearing. We will keep you posted about any further activity. It will be interesting to see what transpires.
