On Wednesday night I stayed outside for awhile and watched and there were no green eyes on the hill. I saw white eyes coming up the drive way and I called for the fox. It was a bright moon and as the eyes got closer I could see the fox. I threw it two hot dogs and as it walked over to get them I looked up on the hill and my headlamp lit it up. Two green eyes rose over a rock. The fox must have seen them too because suddenly it broke for the river. I've called hundreds of foxes down the hill and have seen them run down for hot dogs many times. I know their speed. I see it night after night. The fox was like a bullet towards the cover of the tamarisk in the river. The green eyes broke off the hill in a straight line cutting off the angle of the fox trying to get to the river. Whatever ran down the hill with the green eyes I only saw a blur but it was heavy enough that I could hear it's feet running down the hill and it was probably 50% faster than the fox. I might be short a fox.
I came back inside and looked up "fox predators". There was the bobcat and it said they hunted fox pretty successfully. This is reminding me of some of the sharp-shinned hawks that I've had over the years who sit on certain rocks to provide a good angle to intercept songbirds trying to get to the river shrubbery for cover. They also like rabbit, dogs, cats and can take down a small deer. Then I realized Jax is coming back next week. I've got to solve this before Jax gets here. Reading further I found they generally hunt a few hours before dark and a few hours after and then again a few hours before sunrise and a few hours after.
On Thursday I grid searched the property looking for any remains or signs of a struggle of the bobcat taking the fox it sent fleeing. I found nothing. I went up the hill and walked around looking for any sort of cat tracks but the ground is hard and it was hard to distinguish any track of anything at all.
I was pretty sure I pinned down the rock it sits on and last night was hiding behind until a fox made itself available.
I'd spent a chunk of Thursday checking electric heaters to see which worked and which didn't and which brand seemed more effective and used up the least amount of energy. Then I collected the three different types of walkies I have and spent a couple hours seeing which worked, what didn't, changing out batteries and making sure all 18 of them were set on channel 21. When I came back down from the hill looking for tracks the walkies were all still sitting on the table. I realized it worked on the sharp-shinned that was such a problem a few years ago why wouldn't it work on the bobcat?
I went up the hill and surrounded the sitting hiding bobcat rock with walkies in every direction.
I waited. Three times I went outside and waited in the cold night air for ten to fifteen minutes and nobody came, nobody. There were no green eyes on the rock. At about 8:30 I walked outside and there were green eyes on the rock. There was a little fog coming off the river, a little mist in the air, the moon trying to break through. It was eerie out. In the highest, ghostliest, high pitched voice I could find I spoke into the walkie. The voice, my voice, of the spirits came from everywhere up on the hill and the green eyes disappeared immediately. They popped up again to the right. I screamed into the walkie, the green eyes disappeared and showed up to the left, I screaming into the walkie. I was everywhere and the bobcat was surrounded. The green eyes disappeared.
An hour or so later one fox showed up. I haven't seen anybody else. Not ringtail, not raccoon, not skunk, not fox. At 1am, just a few minutes ago I went up the hill to collect all my walkies and get them out of the mist before they short out tonight. I couldn't find two of them. Hopefully I'll find them in the morning. I hate to think what it means if I don't find them at all.
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