Foxed!

[altivo]

Tess and I found a fox in her pasture this afternoon when we went out. She or he had caught something about the size of a chipmunk, and took off bouncing away from us in a way that more resembled a rabbit than a fox. In the past I've seen them running gracefully and fast, but this was a series of long leaps that really covered ground. I expected it to lead to a quick disappearance, but no. Foxy sat in the northeast corner of the pasture and watched us for a good ten minutes. Tess wasn't very interested and decided to roll in the grass but I was watching back just as intently as I was being watched. Finally the fox took off through the fence and to the the east into the oak woods, still carrying the prey in his/her mouth.

Still debugging small things with the Samba installation on the Alphas, but mostly it's working now. Because I was forced to change the UIC on my personal accounts to make it work, there were a number of nuisance side effects, some of which are still unresolved. In spite of that, I have to say the Alpha systems are amazingly stable and steady runners.

Feels like there might be thunderstorms in the offing, just by the air, but I haven't heard any warnings. Better now than on the weekend.

I need to do some ironing and get to bed. We're having a group photo taken tomorrow morning at work so we can present it to our director on her retirement. I plan to take Argos' head along and offer to hold him like a hand puppet in the photo. He works quite well that way.

Comments

[moonhare]

took off bouncing away from us in a way that more resembled a rabbit than a fox.

Interesting. I use gait to judge an animal's 'type' when I can't quite make out their form. The fox I saw here last night did the classic 'about face' when it saw me, never missing a step, as if it planned to walk toward me and then turn right around and walk quickly away.

[altivo]

Yes, and that confused me too at first, but the color and size were wrong for a cottontail and we don't have jackrabbits here. Then at the far end of the pasture, about a football field away, he turned sideways for a moment and the profile with tail held straight out behind was unmistakeable. I really enjoy seeing foxes on our land, and it usually only happens two or three times a year, most often about now.

Yes, I've seen that "about face" move too. A couple of years ago I walked out of the woods into the pasture just as a fox was headed across and right toward me. She turned right around and retraced her path as if that had been her intention all along. At that time there was a den dug into the berm at the head of our creek, so I knew where she was going. She may well have had kits stashed there.

Others in the area complain about coyotes, but I've not seen one in twelve years here, not even when we had lambs in spring. Stray dogs, yes, far too many of them. I've seen coyotes elsewhere and wouldn't object to them either, but they don't seem to come around our house and land.