There are gray foxes each night. One Ear who a couple years ago became a favorite because how beat up it was when it got here and how long it took to nurse it back to health. There is another two eared fox that works solo and a couple that show up on the porch occasionally.
Two raccoons come together. The dominant one eats first and only when it is done does the other one get to eat.
Zorro the badger is here some nights despite the eviction from Kobae's hole back in February.
There is a small family of spotted skunks most evenings and they are very cooperative. The mother puts out a high pitched warning sound when they arrive so there aren't any confrontations and the babies hide in extra piping under the front porch. She comes up and gets food for them and then takes it back under the porch.
Hurrah is a cattle dog that was always running off from the cowboy camp last winter and when the herd moved south down Lockhart Basin he was abandoned. I rarely see Hurrah but I always know when he's been here because he steals the food bowl and runs off with it. I always find it in the same place. So now I have a monster food bowl out there but he's still managed to take that twice. The last two weeks I've seen two sets of dog tracks coming up from the river most every day and there have been some nights where I have filled the food bowl twice more during the night and it was still empty come morning. The cattle showed up a couple days ago and the first thing the cowboys ask me was if I'd seen a sheep dog. I told them Hurrah was still here and he said "No not Hurrah, another one ran off a couple weeks ago, also a male." So Hurrah has found a friend.
Out of all the night creatures the two ring tails that show up early every night are my favorite. I can't help just looking at them and busting up laughing. I'm pretty sure the larger of the two is Kitty who we've seen off an on for a couple years as she shows no fear of humans but what I believe to be the smallest of the four kids she had in the spring and still comes with her I've named the "Shy One" is the funniest. In one of these videos I try and feed it chicken but because I'm having to stand on my toes and lift as high as I can my arm is moving around and I think the Shy One thinks the food I'm trying to give it is still alive and might bite.
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2 comments:
What a menagerie you have collected!
Cyn, last night was awesome. It's a very strong moon and despite some clouds was still pretty bright outside. I fed the ringtails and skunks early and then from about 11pm until 1:30am when I couldn't stay awake anymore it was a steady procession of gray foxes coming to the porch. All two ears. At the most crowded time I saw one eating out of the bowl, one at the stairs waiting, one on the sidewalk, and one in the driveway. Occasionally one would go smell the other but everybody waited in line for their turn. There was one instance where a gray fox cut in line but it got growled at by a couple of the others and went back to the parking lot. Who knew, not me?
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