I missed it, alas, because I was too slow getting my boots on this morning. Gary went out to start feeding critters, and heard barking and that fox "yawp" sound behind the arena so he went back to see. The Brit neighbors have a noisy and stupid little Cairn terrier, and there he was, confronting the vixen over a dead rabbit. Gary's appearance ( Read more... )

Rained all day, sometimes quite hard. Still raining now ( Read more... )

Neighbor across the road reported a fox sighting to us and asked if we had seen the "neighborhood fox" yet this year. Had to admit we haven't actually had a visual confirmation, but I found two dead meadow voles stashed outside the burrow under the far corner of the arena this morning, we've seen footprints in the snow, and heard fox sounds outside ( Read more... )

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 ( Read more... )

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 ( ( Read more... )

Maybe I can get more done this weekend than last, even though it's only two days. At least we aren't expecting any more weather catastrophes until Monday, when it's supposed to start raining, then turn to freezing rain, sleet, and finally snow ( Read more... )

Not necessarily in that order ( Read more... )

I heard them today. Here, in my own woods. I think, though, that the time for the 17 year variety is past and these must be the first of the regular annual broods. Fireflies are dancing in the dusk as I write, too, and the first katydid is hanging on the kitchen windowscreen ( Read more... )

So it was clearer tonight than last, though still a bit hazy, and we went out after sunset to look at the Venus-Saturn conjunction. At first I was a little disappointed. It may look spectacular through a wide-field telescope, but to the naked eye or with my bird-watching binoculars Venus pretty much steals the show. The inner planet is blindingly ( Read more... )

( Baby vixen tangled in fence, but freed successfully )