faunascope

To spot a fox... listen for the crows

It's 6:30 in the morning. I'm out of bed at the insistence of my 20-month old toddler, squawking in the next room.

He demands a glass of milk. We both shuffle into the kitchen. As I'm rooting in the fridge, another part of my brain is registering the raucous cries of our resident horde of crows. I think to myself, "Gee, the crows and hawks are squabbling awfully early this morning."

Suddenly my boy, at the picture window, shouts "Fox!". I'm a little skeptical; as far as I know he only has one picture book with a fox. But then again he does have a lot of Richard Scarry books that have foxes in their cast of characters. And what about that racket from the crows?

Sure enough, I look out the window in time to see an orange fox trotting along the edge of our yard with the crows haranguing him!

This isn't the first time the crows have helped us spot predators. Earlier this year I spotted a coyote crossing through our woods, again because the crows were harassing him.

So why do crows track and harass foxes and coyotes? I would think that most of the time they don't pose much threat to crows. I haven't been able to find a definitive answer, but perhaps it's because they compete over carrion. I imagine it's even possible, though unlikely, that a canid could catch and kill an unwary crow feeding on a deer carcass. I also suspect that their divebombing might cause a fox to drop any dinner he might be carrying in his mouth, resulting in a free lunch for the crows.

In any event, I'm certainly not the first to learn the trick of following the crows to spot foxes. Courtesy of Google, here's an article from a 1906 Washington newspaper that mentions it.

Beaver jackpot!

Several months ago I learned of a nearby pond where a family of beavers had taken up residence. I thought this might be a great place to try out my latest homebrewed camera trapping rig that captures video and audio. A property owner graciously allowed me access and I set up my gear at the water's edge.

I thought it might be hard to attract the beavers, so I brought some freshly cut black birch and chokecherry branches, along with some scent lure.

Amazingly enough, it seemed completely unnecessary. I was setting up in the late afternoon, and around 5 pm the beavers came by to investigate me all on their own. There was one beaver who swam very close, about 15 feet away, and just kept swimming circles keeping an eye on me. This was before I even got the scent lure or branches out of my car - all I had set up was the equipment. Then I went back up to the car and when I came down there were 2 beavers. So it wasn't just me they were interested in - they were interested in the gear!

I guess like all engineers they're interested in any gadget they come across. :-)

After I left, it didn't take them long at all to start exploring. This is the very first clip recorded, and it starts about an hour after I left the site.

I've read that beavers forage in pairs, and this video is consistent with that. First two smaller beavers explore, and they clear out (and take the scented branch with them) when a much larger one appears. If you've never heard any beaver vocalizations, you can hear them here as they nibble and at one point chatter to each other.

I've got at least two other clips that I'll be sharing here over the next week or so, so please check back soon.

Sharing a tasty branch

This clip picks up just a few minutes after the first one left off. Here we see the large beaver joined by yet another smaller one. It's likely that all the beavers we've seen in these clips are part of one extended family. According to Beaver Solutions, beavers will drive unrelated individuals out of their pond.

You see them retreat to the water when a nearby dog gives voice. Of course, they take their tasty branch with them. So in less than 90 minutes after I first set the camera trap, they've cleaned out my bait!