I Caught a Fox

Following up on a previous post labelled "To Catch a Fox", I did finally manage to "catch" a fox, two in fact, at the location where we had seen fox evidence in the form of a den and lots of tracks.  I had the boys with me on the way back from a church baseball game and our route took us right past the location.  We quietly (as quietly as you can approach with three eager boys aged 8, 6 and 4 eager to be the first to see!) approached and rounding a bend, were rewarded right way with seeing two Red Foxes crossing the tracks, likely returning home to the den for the day.  It was around 8:30pm and with nightfall coming, the adults were returning to the den where the kits were likely inside.  By this time they would likely be between two or three months old.

Red Fox Den door step.
Fresh hole excavation evidence on bottom left.

After my first visit back in November, I had stopped by in May to see if there was any activity to indicate they were there.  I had found the above evidence of a new den on the opposite side of the tracks, and the very cleanly picked over remains of what I'm pretty sure is a Wild Turkey given its size.  I wonder if foxes are large enough to take down a Wild Turkey.  If not, they might have found the remains to clean up.  Foxes tend to eat smaller animals like mice and squirrels, though are actually omnivorous meaning they will also eat berries and nuts.  The bones, trampled grass and surrounding sand all covered with tracks gave ample evidence that they were definitely there.

Picked clean Wild Turkey remains on the den doorstep.

And our most recent visit gave us this short sighting with only enough time to shoot three pictures before they were gone, this one being the best of the lot before they were quietly and swiftly gone.

Red Fox pair.

Up in the structure of the railway overpass bridge were nesting Rock Pigeons.  This nest seems to have been adopted from what I believe started out as a swallow nest so I wonder if these two were just hanging out there.  Usually pigeons build a stick nest.

Rock Pigeons

Some time I'd love to hang out at this location and see if I can see the young ones.  Some day.