On February 19, the new shy red fox finally looked in the window at me with curiosity, giving me a good face picture for the records. His or her face looks so much like the nice engaging male that I had a hard time knowing who I was looking at. The best mark is the big white tip on his tail while the usual nice fox has a small white tip. Another difference is behavior. When I come out the door, the nice male accepts it. The new one still panics. Just now I got a call saying both foxes are together at another feeding spot, making us all think the new fox is female. It’s mating season, and we’re both hoping we’ll see little foxes in a few months when they get out and around.
Mink "Line"On February 21, the main mink stopped by, the one with a line down its throat. It was early enough in the morning that I still had a slow shutter speed to catch the blur as he hurried by with his breakfast bologna.
This morning, the PeekaBoo raven came by with the same look as when he(?) peeked out from behind a tree. He didn’t know I was here because the blinds were three quarters down. It was my first opportunity to photograph him so close. I saw a black wing tip as he landed, aimed the camera, and held still. When he stepped into view with the familiar look on his face, I got in two fast clicks as he saw me and leaped into the air within a fraction of a second.
Raven
Tomorrow, it’s bears—but only talking about them. People have been seeing bears out and about in the deciduous forest farther south in Minnesota and Wisconsin but not up here in the transition forest where there is no food to reward them if they were to get up and waste energy. I got a surprise call from Wisconsin Public Radio asking if I would talk about the sightings between 7:00 and 7:30 tomorrow morning. The email they then sent said:
“If you want to encourage others to tune in to the program, they can listen via our livestream by clicking on "The Ideas Network" here: https://www.wpr.org/listen-live. The segment will be recorded and posted later in the day on "The Morning Show" page at wpr.org.”
I don’t know if it will be a couple quick questions or the full half hour, but it sounded like a nice opportunity to talk about my favorite subject.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center