Surprise Visitor

john · Post by **john** » Sun Feb 23, 2014 11:18 am

The attached photo shows a surprise visitor to our yard recently. This may not be too rare for some of you who live in less urban areas, but we are very urban. In the almost forty years we have lived in the house, the only wildlife we have had has been squirrels(many), and the resident ground hogs and rabbit that destroy my garden every year. There are fox on the islands separating Montreal from our place but since the river doesn't freeze over, I don't think he came from there.

He is either sunning himself or waiting for lunch as we have a bird feeder that attracts squirrels and sometimes the rabbit.

John

reible · Post by **reible** » Sun Feb 23, 2014 12:32 pm

Very cool!

We never see foxes by our house either but now I can hope. Checked out the window just in case, nope, not this time anyway.

Thanks for posting, I love this sort of thing.

Ed

algale · Post by **algale** » Sun Feb 23, 2014 1:47 pm

john wrote:The attached photo shows a surprise visitor to our yard recently. This may not be too rare for some of you who live in less urban areas, but we are very urban. In the almost forty years we have lived in the house, the only wildlife we have had has been squirrels(many), and the resident ground hogs and rabbit that destroy my garden every year. There are fox on the islands separating Montreal from our place but since the river doesn't freeze over, I don't think he came from there.

He is either sunning himself or waiting for lunch as we have a bird feeder that attracts squirrels and sometimes the rabbit.

John

I live in a suburban area and see them from time to time in my yard and neighborhood but based on the tracks I see in the snow, I know one walks down my front walk every morning. We also have rabbit, possum, raccoon and deer. Lots and lots of deer.

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Sun Feb 23, 2014 2:55 pm

I seldom see the javelina but based on tracks, and they do leave a trail because they travel in herds, I have visitors regularly.

I used to rake the trail so that I could tell if they had been there but I am now convinced. They have been and they are.

Gene Howe · Post by **Gene Howe** » Sun Feb 23, 2014 3:10 pm

Saw a family group of Javalina last night in our son's yard. Drove our pups wild. About 15 minutes ago a coyote sauntered by and cleared a 6' fence in back. He never even hesitated. I think he's been that route before.

Where we live, up north, we see cows!

dgale · Post by **dgale** » Sun Feb 23, 2014 3:58 pm

We had one do the same thing about 6-8 years ago when we lived in town - it would lie out in our yard in the sun…had to climb a few fences to get there and was around for a week or two doing this. One concern that pops to mind with this is that foxes are nocturnal creatures and usually only out during the day if famished or rabid…obviously in this situation neither of the two seems to be occurring but at this time we had our visitor, there was a rash of rabid foxes in town and the police had to shoot 2-3 of them over the course of a few months, so I always was a bit perplexed by this unusual behavior and the corresponding presence around town of rabid foxes. Certainly the kids were thrilled to see this out the bedroom window but needless to say I was careful about their outside access while this was happening.

skou · Post by **skou** » Sun Feb 23, 2014 5:44 pm

Gene Howe wrote: Where we live, up north, we see cows!

F-Bar ranch? That would be uncle Jake's herd. (Well, it would, if Jake was not pushing up daisies.) Learned how to ride, drive and shoot, on that ranch.

steve

ChrisNeilan · Post by **ChrisNeilan** » Sun Feb 23, 2014 5:50 pm

Rabies aside, I love foxes. Not only very smart and cute, they eat what we don't want in our yard! Coyotes too! Just make sure they can't get your pets or any small children (they can have the teenagers!).

Gene Howe · Post by **Gene Howe** » Mon Feb 24, 2014 8:40 am

Steve,
We live on the old Ranch of the Golden Horse. Porter-Johnson has the BLM grazing rights. He runs several hundred head per year and is the reason our property is fenced. Only had to walk 3 calves out, so far. One crawled under the fence that spanned a wash. The other two got in because I left the gate open.