August 16, 2010

The wildlife around Lake Wicwas certainly knows we're in the midst of summer.  This afternoon, after the showers, all I saw on long trip was several dozen red efts.  Well, I also met a couple of friendly humans.  And at one point I  heard a red tail hawk calling, but that was about it.

However, they are still plenty active at night when it's cooler.  In addition to the deer going by our house most nights, we discovered this summer that a gray fox travels by our house just about every night.

Gray Fox

Red fox are fairly visible, often seen in the early morning or late afternoon, but I have never seen a gray fox during the day, as they are much more reclusive.  But using an automatic camera I've found that the gray fox has a pretty well-planned routine.  Here is what I recorded passing by our house last week:


Aug 8:     9:39 pm
Aug 10: 10:23 pm
Aug 11    4:10 am (really Aug 12)
Aug 12    9:52 pm
Aug 12  11:02 pm (in the opposite direction)
Aug 13:   9:52 pm

I also found the red fox on August 7, 8, & 9, though it tends to travel later in the night, most often between 2 to 4 am.

Red Fox