Urban Wildlife Alert!

[dreamshark]

 The guy who was putting the final coat on my attic floor today saw a large red fox run out from between the houses across Pillsbury while he was getting something from his truck! He remarked on how large it was, and I wondered if it might be a coyote. But he was positive it was a fox. I texted my 3 neighbors on that end of the block and one of them had seen the fox too (Wendy - who somehow sees EVERYTHING. I think she has a home office that overlooks the street and spends a lot of time gazing out the window). Anyway, she was also positive it was a brightly colored red fox of unusual size. Exciting! I have always been fascinated by foxes ever since reading Vulpes the Red Fox as a child. And with so many species on the verge of extinction I always find it encouraging that so many wild animals still manage to make their homes in cities. I wish I'd seen it.

Comments

[pameladean]

Oh, how lovely! I've only seen foxes late at night along the lakes or Minnehaha Creek. I think they were all gray foxes, but it's hard to tell at night.

I haven't done much at all with the yard this year other than try to make sure people in general can get along the public sidewalk and that residents and visitors can get to the front door and from the back door to the garage and garbage and recycling carts. I guess I might have anything back there, in addition to the visible birds and dragonflies. Eric saw a small possum cross the front walk at about two in the morning last weekend.

P.

[dreamshark]

possums seem really exotic to me. I have never seen one in the wild. I think of them as southern animals. Richard insists that they didn't have possums when he was growing up on a farm in western Minnesota. But they are clearly here now.

[pameladean]

They do to me as well. They're southern animals, in my view. I read an article a few years ago saying that they were expanding their range northward at a fairly rapid pace, and Wikipedia confirms this.

We had a couple of very cold spells during the winter about ten years ago, and I looked out at the bird feeder and thought, "What is WRONG with that squirrel?" It was a small opossum, and a smaller one later joined it. They looked pathetic with millet -- the only seed the birds left behind -- all over their muzzles, and I later put out things more suitable for opossums. We got to watch them go up and down trees and use their prehensile tails, but just for a few days. When the weather warmed up, they vanished.

P.