Welcome Fox

 I know an old lady who swallowed a Fox, my that's outside of the box! She swallowed the fox to catch the mouse, I don't know why she swallowed the mouse, perhaps she'll die. I know an old lady who swallowed a coyote, how quixote! She swallowed the coyote to catch the fox. She swallowed the fox to catch the mouse. I don't know why she swallowed the mouse, perhaps she'll die. There was an old lady who swallowed a tick, ick!  

photograph by Alexander Andrews

When Ginny howls wolf at the window, you will find me lining myself up behind her getting low to look at the exact spot that caused her to howl. Luna positions herself at our side letting out an ear splitting racket. As anyone who walks past our house knows, Luna pulls the fire alarm at everything that moves. This spring she caused a five bike pile up when the lead biker stopped in his tracks upon hearing the hounds. Ginny yaps at passers bye, especially children on wheels, chipmunks and other dogs; but she reserves her howl for Toby the neighborhood cat, saxophones and other villains like fox.

So it was one morning all heck broke loose causing Wayne a near heart attack though he was down in the basement. With all of the hysterics going on behind the glass, the fox paused and looked directly at us. It was a miserable looking creature with barely a hair left on her tail. After a good look at us, she trotted across the road and down into the woods. I say she because mid March is the time of year when fox move in near our homes to have their pups which emerge in April.* They won't stay long, so keep an eye out. 

It's thought that the reason a she fox or vixen dens up under our porches, sheds and in our culverts is not to take advantage of our domestic pets; but rather to find a measure of safety from wildlife competitors and predators. The coyote is predominantly a resource competitor with the fox and they will eliminate fox and their kits when food resources are scarce.** Human created land pressure has decreased available territory and so coyotes and fox have learned to adapt to our environment. In truth, the fox is a solitary animal which would much prefer to be as far away from humans and coyotes as possible. 

There was a time in VT when the Gray Wolf was top Canid and the coyote was nowhere to be found. However, when the wolf became extinct in VT by the late 1800s due to habitat clearing and a twenty dollar a hide bounty to protect livestock, the coyote moved in.*** This story of habitat competitors reminds me of watching plovers as I walk along the ocean shore. When the wave rolls onto the shore, the birds retreat to dryer sand; but when the wave draws back into the ocean, the tiny birds rush towards the ocean searching for food. When we introduce people walking on the beach, the little birds get pushed further down the beach while they run to and from the ocean. 

So why have I taken liberties with Rose Bonne's classic about an old lady? Because when we humans begin to see predators in our backyards, we tend to find ways to drive them out and that may not be to our best advantage. While it's true that a sick fox or a few dead Rhode Island Reds might rightfully so raise alarm, what we should really be concerned about is having no fox at all. This is where the lowly tick comes in. We have all learned to fall in love with that homely tick eating Marsupial the Opossum because we see them as providing us with a no cost service. What if I were to tell you that the fox plays an important role in controlling Lyme Disease too?

"White-footed mice are the principal natural reservoirs for Lyme disease bacteria. Ticks that feed on mice are highly likely to become infected, making them capable of transmitting Lyme disease to people during their next blood meal"****

While it's true that Canids and other animals carry Borrelia, only about ten percent of ticks become infected with the bacteria from feeding on coyote, fox, deer, racoons, possums and birds. We associate Lyme infection with these animals because ticks hitch rides on them.  White footed mice infect ticks ninety percent of the time and a fox can eat five thousand mice a year.**** It makes sense that the fewer the mice the lower the infection and in fact research seems to supports it. In an area where there are less coyotes, there are more fox resulting in fewer mice and therefor fewer infected ticks.*****

 It turns out that biodiversity is a pretty good tool for preventing disease while eradication of a species creates more complications. It also turns out that given enough food resources, fox will cohabitate with coyote with little conflict and the same goes with fox and domestic animals.***** Speaking of other food sources, mice populations are also impacted by other factors besides fox predation, for example a variation in their own food availability as well as the fact that there are many more predators of mice than fox. 

As for those Rhode Island Reds, VT Fish and Wildlife recommends that electric fencing and proper feed management to reduce your losses. -Norma Manning

Resources:

*Discover Wildlife, A Year in the Life of an Urban fox

**Smithsonian Magazine, Foxes and Coyotes are Natural Enemies or are they?

***Stowe Reporter, Not Crying Wolf

****Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Lyme Disease 

*****Cary Institute, Fox and coyote and ticks -oh my

Further reading:

Furbearer Conservation, A Tale of Two Reds: Old-world Versus New-world Red Fox

Random & Rough Spring Trails With Surprises Along the Way

 Donald pulled his truck over and rolled down his window. He wanted to talk about the trails, "You know we called to invite you to the falls?" Yes I had gotten the call but Wayne and I were already on a hike when they left the message. I asked Donald about another trail that Wayne and I were considering between the town forest and Franklin Rd. There were also two ponds that we found on Google Earth but just one showed up on the vast trail map. After an extended chat waving neighbors around us, we left the conversation with Donald telling me about the ways to get to the pond and my saying that it would have to wait until the the spring mud was done with.

Of course as soon as I walked in the door I had Wayne trying to find a way in. We had tried without success once before; but as luck would have it, the temperatures were about to drop like a rock and I assumed that would firm up the mud. So armed with Donald's conversation and a trail map, Wayne and I tried to pick up the trail by driving up to Fairman Rd. Seeing that the area where the trail crossed was posted with no trespassing signs and no place to park, we headed to Sak Rd. There was a field to be crossed next to a house but it too was posted. Our next stop was Tyler Hill Rd at Lillis Pasture Rd and you guessed it, that too was posted. We were beginning to think that we would have to hike in from the town forest after all. 

Just so you know upfront, this is a super long post covering four and a half hours of hiking. But I hope that you will agree that along the way there are some great surprises! 

We decided to park at the town hall and take the trail across 142 and the train tracks. The road crossing the tracks is posted, but the vast diamond is also clearly visible.

Miller Farm is to our right and the crushed stone operation is to our left.

I was excited to see that there is a wildlife refuge on the farm. We saw a flock of Canada Geese there.

Terracing with a brook below reminds us of the glacier and lake that sculpted the land in Vernon

With snow flurries in the forecast, clouds were rolling in over the CT River and Miller Farm

Finding ice on the trail, we immediately regretted leaving our trekking poles and crampons in the car. Also, notice that Wayne packed water and first aid supplies for this hike. 

Once past the open trail, we found ourselves walking up what reminded me of a playground shoot.

I was surprised by how large the gravel mining operation is given it's relatively small road frontage footprint on 142.  Most of the pit isn't visible from the trail. After the hike, I explored this area using the 3-D option on Google Earth. 

The bank of the shoot is sand. It's interesting how varied the soil is in this area of Vernon

At the end of the shoot we found ourselves in mixed soft and hardwood trees

Without sled tracks to guide us, we kept our eyes out for the vast trail diamonds. It's important to note that these markers are placed for the much faster riders and can seem too spread out for hikers. Here we see directions to a logging lot. Experience tells us that the trail could get rough with logging happening.

 The cycle of freezing and thawing created air pockets on the logging road which did not hold our weight. It's important that when the tail gets rough that you do your best to not walk to the side of it. Hiking around rough areas creates erosion and widens the trail. This includes wet muddy spring trails. Many trails are closed in the spring to prevent damage to them and to protect wildlife.

Finally we found what we were looking for.

Everything pointed in this direction but we came upon posted land. We had to backtrack to the intersection and try the trail on the right instead.

Further up the trail on the right we located another diamond that was the same color that we had followed to the posted land. A good Samaritan attempted to clarify where we were headed.

Another decision to be made

The trail to the right lead to a clearing above the Miller Farm pastures

Miller Farm has cleared this land

A clear view of our retired nuclear power plant - Vermont Yankee

The soil is rocky in this new clearing

Another backtrack had us considering taking a well worn wildlife path.

The third trail is the charm!

We began seeing brooks and wet  trails 

At this juncture we were out of trail options, so when the trail became blocked, we continued on

I want to mention that there were beautiful cliffs on the other side of the trail, but none of my pictures showed them well enough to post. I thought that these vines were also interesting.

We began hearing an ATV but never spotted it. Wayne said we were headed towards Lillis Pasture

Lilis Pasture to the left, Tyler Hill to the right, 142 from where we came. We headed to Lilis.

Of course it was uphill

Moose scat

Wayne couldn't believe that I picked up poop, but how else were you to see how big it was?

There is a lot of water up here

A sure harbinger of spring, the snow fleas are out

When the diamonds are on the ground, take your best guess

I think that on clearer days the view from this hill would be beautiful. For now I settled for more wetlands.

Wayne letting me know approximately where we are

Finding Laurel provided better orientation for me

Friendly face 

 

It had started to snow and we weren't entirely certain that we were on the right trail, so you will understand that I felt like I had found the golden Easter egg when I found this diamond!

Wayne pointed to the gate post and then headed towards that side of the trail. I should have paid closer attention to the reason he did so.

When I took the course Living in a Vigorous Environment at Keene State, we were told that when your shoes get wet, keep walking to dry them out. What choice did I have?

More trees across the trail

Someone was trying to tell us that we weren't getting out of this in one piece. 

Finally we reached the green trail! We could hear the interstate along this trail.

Given that this trail runs north and south we needed to decide to which direction once again. Wayne decided to go south. Who was I to argue?

Having hiked most of the way with too little information, we suddenly found ourselves on the information highway!

We had just come from 1 to the intersection. Wayne informed me that we were about halfway through our hike if we took the loop 1-A back to the farm. On this map there was only one big pond in the area, and it looked like we were going to miss it. Looking at the map as I write, I can see the small triangle on the orange trail above Miller Farm, where we back tracked to twice before heading towards Franklin Road and Lillis Pasture.

 

The 1-A trail meets up with Cold Brook. This side of the trail had been recently traveled on by logging trucks and so the roads were wet, rutted and muddy. The snow began falling more steadily.

Two miles (?) of hiking in truck ruts seemed more than enough for one day. But I believe this is what the loggers were after.

Where there is mud and flowing brooks there is bound to be beaver, and where there are beaver there are beaver ponds and I was so excited to finally find it!

This is the pond seen on Google Earth but not on the Junction map. It is rectangle in shape with two dams and a third under construction. 

An impressive dam network. This is the largest I've seen in southern VT.  This is dam #1

Dam #2

Hemlock branches underwater between dams two and three. Branches and saplings are stuck in the mud and stored for another meal.

This is  dam #3 which is under construction (lower right corner). In spite of the beaver's efforts, the Cold Brook continued east. 

We enjoyed the company of the swollen Cold Brook as we hiked along the trail. As for the markers above? At this juncture, what's another lucky guess?

Imagine our dismay when we exited this part of the trail by walking right past the posted signs that had caused our first backtrack at the start of our hike. We wondered it it was a logger who had posted his lot and that this section of 1-A was in fact still open for snowmobiles and hikers? Clearly our hike to the pond would have been much quicker had we continued on our way.

I hope you enjoyed our hike. I think that our next adventure will take us the distance between the town forest and Franklin Rd...but we never know!