Friday, July 17, 2015

Wild Kingdom in Suburbia


In the middle of the night, Emma alerted me to some strange sounds emanating from the woods behind my house. As many of you know, I live in the middle of beautiful downtown suburbia, but there is a small stretch of woods which spans about four or five houses. Followers of my blog will remember having seen photos posted of a hawk, raccoons, turkeys,  and a number of deer in these woods. Well, early this morning my neighbor called to tell me to look out as a family of foxes was playing behind her fence.


While the mom kept careful watch, the little one were wrestling and running up, down, and across the banking.  I counted four kits, though there may have been more. I took these shots from a very safe distance with my long lens while leaning over my fence.


One even ventured briefly into the space between the end of the fence and my neighbor's shed.


The kits were having a wonderful time scampering around and while I did enjoy seeing them, I would certainly prefer that they find somewhere else to live. This will no doubt happen soon when they get bigger although my research indicates that the mother may well return to the same den next spring.

Although I have a four foot chain link fence, obviously Emma is no longer allowed off leash in her own backyard.

Also, I didn't blog about it, but two weeks ago when I took Emma out early one morning, she ran to the corner of the backyard and began barking in a true, high level schnauzer frenzy. I went to investigate, and on the other side of the fence not more than three feet away was a creature at least twice her size. It had a flat, catlike face and small upright ears. It was making loud scary noises as I scooped Emma up and beat a hasty retreat to the house. The creature which I truly believe might have been a bobcat ran down the incline into the woods. Many have suggested that it might have been a fisher cat, but those have a more ugly weasel-like appearance and it wasn't a coyote either. It definitely had a flat, catlike face. I reported it, but I thankfully have not seen it since. 

1 comment:

  1. while it is fun to see "wild life" it is much better to feel safe in your own garden x Hope they move on soon and you can go back to enjoying your garden x

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