May 12, 2025
I’d seen her, but my husband hadn’t. So yesterday evening, we did a fox stakeout. As the sun went down, we parked ourselves on the front patio, watching and listening. Then — a scratching sound behind us. We turned to look, and there she was, perched atop our fence, clearly wondering, What the heck — why are you here?
She stood there a minute or so, undecided. After snapping a few photos, we turned away and sat quietly, letting her make her next move without a staring audience.
Our neighbor’s fence was built about 8 inches apart from ours, and plenty of animals have used the gap as a protected byway: rabbits, armadillos, and rock squirrels for sure. Raccoons, possums, and a ringtail cat I spotted last week cruise the top of the fence. And now we know a fox uses it too. I wonder if she has a den of kits back in there.
She ultimately leapt over the lattice and into our back yard. We let her hunt in peace. I hope she found a pesky, pillow-chewing rock squirrel back there.
The setting sun gave a golden glow to Mexican feathergrass, Mexican oregano, and ‘Vanzie’ whale’s tongue agave in the island bed.
Earlier in the day, I watched several Texas spotted whiptails darting around on the driveway. This bold one came over to check me out. The whiptails are the fifth kind of lizard I’ve observed in our garden: green anoles, Texas spiny lizards, geckos (nonnative), skinks, and now whiptails. I’d love to see a Texas alligator lizard in the garden, but so far I’ve only encountered one in St. Edward’s Park.
During our fox stakeout that evening, I heard one of the screech owls trilling overhead in a live oak. I walked all around that tree trying to spot him. Even with multiple trills directly overhead, I couldn’t find him thanks to his excellent camouflage. My husband finally spotted him.
We think it was the male. The female wasn’t sitting in the owl box doorway like she usually does, but she was nearby in a different tree — which we realized only when they both flew off to hunt.
Here’s the male keeping watch.
He was itchy and fussed over one foot, stretching his leg and picking at it with his beak.
He did a good bit of scratching and grooming all over before taking flight.
I spotted one of them delivering something noodly to the owlets and thought snake. I only got a blurry photo in the dark, and now it looks a little like a rat — but the tail is too long? So perhaps a snake after all. Either way, good eating for hungry owlets.
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