Recently we were treated to a mid-July rarity. Said rarity comprised of a run of rainy cooler days happening at the height of what is otherwise the All Death Star/All The Time season.
Our rain gauge captured a total of 2 3/4 inches across a three day span but as exciting as that is, it was not the most exciting bit of business we experienced.
One afternoon as we raised blinds to stand at our windows and simply admire the sight of rain falling on our parched surroundings, my daughter remarked, "Mom! I think I just saw a grey fox run under my car!" (said car being parked to one side of our driveway out front).
When I asked her if she'd seen it keep on running out from underneath, she said she did not, and we speculated the animal might still be hovering under her car to keep from becoming drenched.
Naturally, I headed out to open the garage door and see if I could snap a shot of the rain-averse fox for the blog. (What? You don't automatically think "this should be a post" when out of the ordinary events occur in your yard and gardens?)
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| Pinky swear that semi-curved blur in the middle of the shot is the hind quarters of the animal. |
What we had hustling through our environs was not a grey fox at all but rather a good sized coyote, the first we've seen with our own peepers in these parts.
I'd been aware we had coyotes in our general area. Considering the mass quantities of baby deer currently stumbling around our neighborhood I guess I ought not be surprised coyote are coming in even closer, but frankly I was a little surprised and a lot disconcerted to see one out and about in our suburban area barely a block away from what on sunnier days is a very busy park, ball field and neighborhood swimming pool.
In this case, July showers brought about a coyote bloom.
This sighting provided a stark reminder there is a food chain at work all around us, including uninvited guests, who will participate with or without direct encouragement.
Duly noted.
6 comments:
Those little fawns will provide a tasty meal for coyote. Bummer for the fawns, great for the coyote. My cat was stalking one of our little foxes (a juvenile, I think) the other night. I discreetly picked him up (the cat, not the fox) and took him indoors. I think he's too big for a fox, but you never know. The rain is lovely, isn't it?? Not so the skeeters that will follow, though.
Tina, that's about the long and short of it. The coyotes will feast on the fawns, who are feasting on my landscaping, where the mosquitoes will multiply after the rain and then feast upon me!
Aaaaand, cue music. "Its the Circle of Life, And it moves us all..." Or wait - maybe that should go "And it bites us all".....
I am reminded of the food chain every morning as my cat has taken to leaving the guts of her prey on my welcome mat every morning. I find it odd that she eats everything but the guts, and I find it odd she thinks we want them, but whom am I to question the chain?
I am reminded why I am such an infrequent commenter on blogs -- because I"m so bad at it! Bad grammar, redundancy . . . why do I never see these things before I hit publish?
Joan: Yay! You commented! Fear not, this comment section is unpoliced by grammarians or redundancians either one.
Seriously - if you did value a place where the occasional typo was left to live a quiet life uncorrected and unharassed? This could be that.
We've had cats who were motivated to share prey remnants but as our current felines are indoor-only types, they are reduced to sharing (mostly) dead roaches and various bits of floor spice. MUCH easier to handle when it comes to clean-up. Double fold of paper towel and DONE!
Coyotes will also eat feral and free‐roaming cats. The only way to keep your cat safe from coyotes is to keep it indoors.
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