Wildlife

Fox watching has always been an exciting part of living here on the farm. This picture was taken through a window last year by my neighbour Emile. Freddy, visited Emile's bird feeder often last year, in late afternoon as he was heading out for his evening hunt. He was beautiful - sleek, healthy glowing red coat with a big bushy tail. He had a well worn path that led across our backyards. He lived beneath an abandoned farm building on the property to our west. He would stop to drink from our creek, which is behind our barn, and runs all year no matter what the temperature, perhaps do a little hunting for mice along the edge of the field, run along the edge of The Throwaway Forest, visit the birdfeeder of my neighbour, then head off east or north to the neighbouring fields or forested areas for the night. We often saw him, in fact he often watched us, unafraid. I am always wary of the wild animals here as rabies is common, but we knew this fellow's habits. Sometimes JJ would see him following the tractor and mower in the summer if he was mowing laneways on the farm -the mowing disturbed the mice and sent them scurring for new cover making it easy for Freddy to catch his dinner. In the winter, I like to look for tracks to see what animals and birds have been visiting overnight and we would often comment on his activities based on the tracks.

For many years a female fox occupied the same den, and we got to see the young foxes come out to play in the early evenings - if the wind was blowing in the right direction so we could hide undetected. Any sightings were always reported to the family even if it was daily. One year, I was weeding my flower beds after a rainy stretch to discover a very tiny fox cub, just meters away from my back door, cowering in the flower bed. I knew right away he was sick so I grabbed a heavier pair of work gloves and a rabbit cage with a flip top, cautiously came up behind the little cub, picked him up by the scruff and put him in the cage. Poor little thing was frightened but really too sick from exposure to put up any fight. He may have been a runt or simply got lost......the boys wanted to adopt him and make him better - but he died that night. My friend, who is a vet, had taken him to keep an eye on him before we decided what to do with him. He was sent away for rabies testing, but he was clear.

Last spring the neighbours on both sides and ourselves all noted Freddy's absence -perhaps he had moved on????? Then sadly we learned the truth. It seemed, not all the neighbours in our area shared our fascination with watching the wildlife from afar. One thought there were too many fox in our area and decided to get rid of them all -he found the new den of the female and watched for the male along his pathway and shot them -seven in total. So sad. But yesterday we were delighted to see another young male bounding through the snow.....perhaps looking for a new home......