Yawp!

[altivo]

I think our fox from last spring is back, one of them anyway. I've been hearing strange sounds at dawn and dusk, something between a bark and a cat yowl. Tonight they were frequent and loud, so loud that Gary insisted we go out to investigate. Didn't see anything, but I figure the sound was coming from the neighbors' land, right near where their (now empty) henhouse sits.

Came back in and hunted down some recorded red fox sounds on the web, and sure enough. We are hearing "bark", "yawp", and "warning call."

Gary said he found a little heap of meadow voles or something of that sort near one of the barns today. When he went back with a shovel to scoop them up, they had all been carried off. Now our big hunting cat is definitely one to catch mice or mouse-like critters and accumulate a stash, but given the location right near where the foxes denned briefly last spring, I think we've seen the evidence. The ground is thawing and getting soft in the daytime, but at night it is still frozen hard, so no distinctive tracks yet; nor have I smelled them, which I did do last year quite definitely. Still, I'm now convinced that at least one of the foxes is back around.