Into the woods at 07:37, temp of 58, a little patchy fog, clear sky, & calm. A gorgeous morning to be in the woods!! At 08:41, I saw a squirrel coming down a tree to my right & head into the undergrowth. I didn’t see it long enough to tell for sure, but I think it was a red, on the small side.
At 09:20, I headed to the pond & leaned against a tree right on the bank at the west end. At 09:35, I caught motion out of the corner of my right eye, turned my head, & there was a red within 10’ of me. It made its way around the west end of the pond, went along the south bank, &into the brush. At 09:42, I looked to my left just as a fox jumped up on the side of the tree. I had the .17 laying across the top of my right shoulder & was able to bring it down & get it mounted. I had to crouch down a little to be able to shoot under a branch that was between us. It was a nice male.
I was thinking about taking the long route back to my spot at 10:07 when I saw a fox jumping around in the tree tops to my right. I watched it for several minutes with the scope cranked to 9x but it never gave me a shot. I slipped over to the area where I had last seen it & watched until10:30 with no further sightings. There are enough large limbs between the trees that it could have slipped off with me not seeing it. I headed back to my original spot.
At 11:16, I saw another fox moving along the ground near the edge of the woods. It only stayed in view for a few seconds. Shortly after, a large bird flew through the woods & landed some where near where I had seen the bushy. I couldn’t see the bird. A few minutes later, it flew back the way it had come in & landed, again no view. A few minutes after that, it flew again & landed out of sight. My curiosity piqued, I slipped through the woods but couldn’t see the bird or the squirrel. I suspect it was a hawk looking for its lunch.
Speaking of lunch, by this time I had a serious attack of the hungeries & headed to the house.
