Texas Wildlife

Since we moved to Texas, we have encountered a much larger variety and quantity of wildlife than we did in Arizona. Being a girl who had only lived within a 550 mile radius of where she grew up, the wildlife I was used to encountering was limited to boring looking birds, jackrabbits, mule deer, lizards, the occasional snake, and hearing coyotesin the distance. (We had a desert tortoise wander into our yard once in Southern Utah and Jim and I did see a mountain lion on the road in Northern Arizona once, but that was it).

So, when I moved to Texas, I was fascinated by the new wildlife I encountered. There are squirrels in our backyard that I see nearly every day and a great variety of birds that I have seen out my kitchen window. The other day I saw a bright blue bird (don't know its official name), but didn't get a picture fast enough. Yesterday, I saw this bird (which I have seen before, but didn't get a picture--again, don't know what kind it is):

The variety of roadkill we see in Texas is also pretty good. See my friend Lauree's blog for a good list of that.

However, the clincher of our encounter with Texas wildlife occurred last spring when a family of grey foxes took over our backyard. I was reminded of this when I was out in the garden the other day and could tell that some type of animal had been in the garden because my hose had a mound of dirt over it and there were some other tell-tell signs. So, I thought I would share this tale with the blogosphere for those of you who didn't ever hear about it.

Last April (almost a year ago), I opened the blinds in the family room at about 8:30 a.m. and saw this in the backyard:

At first I thought to myself, "This is a pretty wierd looking dog and I know it isn't a cat," but then I looked closer and thought, "That has to be a fox." Mind you I don't think I had ever seen a fox in real life, just pictures or movies, and I don't think I had ever seen a grey fox, just red foxes, so I wasn't quite sure. I knew Jim wouldn't believe me unless I had proof (especially since Joey was only a few weeks old and I was in major sleep deprivation mode), so I snapped the above photo. I showed it to Jim when he got home from work, so he would believe me and then promptly forgot about the whole thing.

Fast forward a month and a half. We went on a trip to Utah at the end of May. Jim flew home from Utah a week and a half before us so he could work (don't worry--my mom flew back with me and the kids so I wouldn't be by myself on the plane with three kids). He called me on Saturday morning to tell me that we had some new pets. Since I knew he wasn't serious, I tried to get out of him what he meant. He finally told me that when he woke up and looked outside, there were five foxes frolicking in our yard--a mom and four babies. See below:

(This is a later photo and I had to take this through the window and it is sort of hard to see, but there are two babies on the chair of the swing and one baby in front of the wood pile and of course the mama on the sand box. I never got a picture of all four babies and mom at once.)

He saw them going between under the shed and under the deck so we figured out that the mama fox must have moved in under the shed and had her babies (about the time I first saw her) and then since we were gone for a week and a half they must have decided they could take over the place.

When the rest of us got home we saw the foxes for ourselves. They really seemed to have taken over our yard. They ran around everywhere and pooped everywhere (it was yucky). When we went outside, the foxes would run under the shed or the deck, but they came out a lot. I didn't dare send the kids outside alone, so our backyard was useless for entertainment for them.

I went into problem solving mode to figure out how to get rid of them. First I called Animal Control. The person there told me that unless the fox was out where they could get it, they wouldn't come out. The animal control officer gave me a number for a wildlife rescue and when I finally talked to that person (after a few days of leaving messages and not getting return calls), she told me that they don't deal with foxes. She suggested I call the Texas Department of Wildlife. (I also did a lot of internet research, but didn't get any great ideas from that other than trapping them). Next, I called my pest control company to see if they had a recommendation. They suggested I call a "Critter Control" company. I called them and they told me it would cost $800 for them to trap the foxes and come get them and relocate them. Since that seemed ridiculous, I finally called the Texas Department of Wildlife and talked to a guy there. He suggested we put moth balls under the shed because the smell should drive the foxes away.

We bought a bunch of moth balls and put them under the shed. (Jim did this late at night and was nervous that the foxes would come out, so it was quite the site--him trying to shove moth balls under the shed holding a shovel and a flashlight). We also put liquid fence (deer urine) under the shed. Jim also got what he thought was a bright idea to spray under the shed with the power washer. It took a few days, but the foxes finally went away. Then we were left with lots of fox poop to clean up, which we did. So, finally after almost a month of being trapped in our house, we felt safe going in our yard.

A year later, I am thinking that we need to pre-emptively put some moth balls under the shed to prevent this from happening again this year. I'm not ready to share my backyard with a family of foxes again!