Our New Daily Visitor

We have a fox who walks through our back yard every morning. I usually see his tail before I see the rest of him. He is a good sized fox which I took to mean he is well-fed. This morning I got to see first-hand just how well fed he is.

I saw a flash of his tail out of my kitchen window so I ran to the patio door to get a better gimpse. And there he was, standing right at the end of our deck staring back at me. He was literally 16 feet away. Lucky for me, there was the glass door between us otherwise I would not have been standing there so confidently.

Between his front paws lay his prey, a rabbit spread out on its back. I was mortified, a little sick to my stomach at the sight of the poor dead bunny, yet I was awestruck watching nature play out right in front of me.

I slowly backed away from the patio door to get my camera. Since I know the path of this familiar creature, he would go through my neighbor's back yard, then head southeast toward the field by the park near our house. So once I had my camera in hand, I had assumed correctly that he would already be gone from my back yard and heading towards the park.

I ran out the front door camera-ready. I think I startled him by running towards him so he headed east and crossed the street. I got this shot of him with his prey as he walked away from me.

During the course of the day I took inventory of the rabbits in my yard...Mama bunny - check. Baby bunny number 1 - check. Baby bunny number 2 - check. The rabbit family that lives under my deck is all still here. I think that means this fox will be returning again.