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Monday, March 24th, 2008
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7:56p - Fox(es) return
I mentioned last week that we had heard a fox barking and yawping nearby one night. Then after Friday's heavy snow we could see a lot of unidentifiable footprints running in and out of an old logpile and a hole under one corner of our arena. Now I have even better evidence that at least one adult fox is around. Saturday it was warm enough to partially melt and compact the snow. Then it refroze to a crusty consistency overnight. Sure enough, Sunday afternoon in the bright sun I could make out faint fairy impressions of medium size canine type footprints running through the pasture and parallel to some of the messier tracks from Friday night.
The snow wasn't firm enough to hold up a dog, which was proved when I saw the neighbors' dogs running around over the same snow. They broke through and left deep holes. The fox is lightfooted enough to run over the top of the snow, leaving faint prints of pawpads and puncture marks occasionally where just the claws pierced the surface. In a few spots I thought I could make out a smaller set of prints running right along with the larger, so perhaps there is a kit again this year. We're just waiting for visual confirmation (or dead chickens) to verify it now.
This time the snow is melting slowly enough that the water drains off or sinks into the ground, so we aren't getting the unpleasant flooding we had after the last two storms. With any luck, this was winter's last blast, but it's hard to be sure of that.
current mood:  pleased
current music: Bothy Band - Pretty Peg;Craig's Pipes (comment on this)
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