We live in rural Quebec, on 3 acres, surrounded by bush and fields. Generally we live in peace with the wildlife (unlike 2 of our city friends who had dogs sprayed by skunks in the past week and a half, including cousin Emma), however, Saturday, we had some interesting encounters.
First, for the 3rd time in a month or so, there were fresh coyote tracks in our yard. Twice recently they have been in the driveway. Lady is thinking of getting a trail cam. Phod will not be allowed off leash at dusk, dawn or in the night.
 |
| Coyote print |
Next - action at the den. Since we have lived in our house, between our place and the neighbour's there has been a den, that until recently has been home to the groundhog Goldbie. Seems Goldbie was evicted and the fox that the Man heard screaming this week, has moved in. Saturday afternoon we saw this.
 |
| Deer leg |
Our neighbour happened to be out and we called him over, as the den is on his property and given that he has 3 small children (the oldest will be 7 this year) and a cat, we thought he should know. We had a discussion about what we are going to do about this. He has seen the fox often and it looks healthy. We would all really like for the fox to keep living, just somewhere else. The den is like 6 feet from our driveway and less then 20 from his kid's swing set. He is going to disturb the den and hope it moves away. If not, we may have to contact wildlife officials or explore other options.
We remain grateful that our encounters have not included skunks!
 |
| Hailey voicing her displeasure on not being allowed to get the deer leg. |
As you can see from the pictures, on Saturday, we still had a lot of snow. We got another 10 cm/4 inches on Friday night. It felt a little more like spring in the afternoon. There is a lot of rain in the forecast this week, so that may help with the melting.
Hari OM
ReplyDeleteCrikey, wonder where it found the leg... foxes being scavangers and not at all likely to have brought the deer down. Still, as you say, interesting neighbours are not always the neighbours one wishes for! Hugs and wags, YAM-aunty xxx
OMP! Gulps and squeals. Good thing I don't live in the area. I can imagine what that mean old fox or coyote would think of me. Please be careful my friends. XOXO - Bacon
ReplyDeleteYou got MORE snow!?!?!?
ReplyDeleteThat Den is a bit of a worry and I have no advice to offer, not a problem this Townie pup has had to worry about
Loves and licky kisses
Princess Leah xxx
Yikes! Be careful out there
ReplyDeleteLily & Edward
Wow, I wonder where the deer leg came from. We have bobcats around here sometimes that we need to be wary of, but mostly we live too much in town for skeery stuff.
ReplyDeleteYikes - this is pretty scary stuffs! Stay safe guys!
ReplyDeleteMore Snow!?! I love living in the country, we have coyotes that pass through our land. We haven't seen a deer or a fox. I can't believe Lady wouldn't let you have the deer leg, Lee, it seems a waste to LEAVE IT. BOL
ReplyDeleteAroo to you,
Sully
Good Golly Miss Hailey...those are some critters that no one wants to encounter.
ReplyDeleteShortly after mom retired she was sitting on out back porch playing WWF..out of the corner of her eye something darted by...mind you we live smack in the middle of a very populated residential community. It was a fox. Dang thing jumped over the neighbors gate just like a cat.
Mom thought is was gone then lo and behold she heard a noise looked behind her the fox was standing on the first of 2 steps up to the deck. Mom calmly got up. Thankfully she was close to the door. Odd behavior in the middle of the afternoon for a fox she thought. It appeared healthy but it was a close encounter for sure.
Hugs madi your bfff
OMD a FOX that close... not good with Kidlets and Kitties and YOU TWO around...
ReplyDeleteSo have you thought about dumping MOTH BALLS down the den? THAT chases off MOST critters withOUT hurting them.
We live on the remnants of Mom's family farm in rural NC. There's a fair amount of forest and fields here that are lovely to explore. I've lived here all of my 5 years as Mom got me as a wee 7 week old pup. I've never been off leash ever in my lifetime (except in the fenced in back yard with Mom or Dad watching me) due to an extreme coyote problem. Several of our neighbors have lost pets due to the coyotes around here.....
ReplyDeleteOh that's a little scary!! But beautiful photo of Hailey! Thanks for sharing :)
ReplyDeleteHenry
a few years ago the trails that run in and out of the residential areas here had an invasion of coyotes who kept nabbing small dogs - so sad. Finally after quite the long battle and discussion, they were trapped and moved into more rural areas. We hope something can be done about that fox soon before someone gets hurt.
ReplyDeleteWoos - Lightning and Misty
Wow!!! All we have is skunks...and the only one that gets sprayed is Mama!
ReplyDeleteSmileys!
Dory, Jakey, Arty & Bilbo
Yikes! We had a lot of fox around at our previous house, but I'm glad I never saw the remnants of a deer around. Since we're planning on getting chickens, wildlife is going to be a big concern so we're starting to research now ways to keep them away. We saw tracks that looked like coyote this week too.
ReplyDeleteThe worst we've dealt with at our new house so far though is porcupines! Nothing scares those darn things and they'll get right up to the dog fence too.
We agree...no skunk encounters is good.
ReplyDeleteHope the skunks stay away. Sometimes it's hard to live with wildlife.
ReplyDeleteWe have a similar environment (bush and fields) on our 5 acre property and have had fox living among us for all of the 27 years we've been here. They are really nothing to be afraid of since they usually are most active at night. It is definitely a concern if the neighbors let their cat outside (same because of the coyote). We have never found their den but have occasionally seen their kits frolicking around the yard early in the morning. I've never been fast enough to catch any of it on camera. The most we ever see is their foot prints on our driveway.
ReplyDeleteWatching foxes raise their kids can be incredibly fun. But I can see that the den is in a place where both the foxes, dogs, and humans will be disturbed by each other.
ReplyDeleteSometimes it's hard living in harmony with Mother Nature's children. Hopefully you can peacefully resolve this issue and the fox can continue to hang around, just not so close to the driveway and swing set!
ReplyDeleteWe had foxes in our old neighborhood. Such interesting little creatures and never bothered anyone. It's a good idea to move the den though!
ReplyDeleteCoyotes scare me with having a small dog.
We live in the suburbs and we have coyotes HERE! Yes, roaming the streets! It's really weird, to be on an early morning walkie, and have a coyote jaunting down the street!!! He/she is healthy, no one knows where he lives though. Probably near the many creeks around here, butts it's kerazy! Anyhu, sorry you didn't gets to take the leg home with you Hailey. Peeps can be such killjoys!
ReplyDeleteKisses,
Ruby ♥
Our Joanna often hears coyotes in the woods behind her apartment. She's never seen one, though. We have lots of foxes around here too. Again, rarely see them unless one gets run over by a car.
ReplyDelete