In the two dozen or so acres of woods behind my mom’s house, there are both finished walking and running trails of crushed stone, and dirt side trails which wind off and between the finished trails. I walk the side trails, but also, unfortunately, mountain bikers like them, too.
There are countless abandoned animal holes along the side trails, like a groundhog or fox or some other burrowing animal lived in them years ago. One of those holes, this morning, clearly looked like it’d been renovated since the last time I walked past it a few days ago. It’s the season when female foxes hunker down in dens to have their litters, and foxes are notorious for taking over old abandoned dens and making them their own, so I’m guessing a mom did some work here the past week. Unfortunately, this concerns me, because this den is right next to a side trail that gets walked and biked heavily, sometimes by people walking dogs. Foxes are also notorious for switching dens frequently, so I guess I have to trust that if this is the work of a fox, and she finds that there’s too much traffic in this location, she’ll move deeper into the woods.
Anyway it’s consistent with my experience of foxes in this woods: I don’t see them directly, but see (this den, tracks in the snow) and hear (occasional yelping) evidence of their presence.
I hope I luck into seeing them this spring, but only if they’re safe from human (or dog) interlopers.
Max Harrick Shenk, writer 