Is that a mouse in my freezer?

As you know, we have at least one red fox living on our property. We've seen his (or her?) tracks in the snow, the telltale poo deposited all over the place, and even had a sighting a few days ago. We were just sitting down to dinner when I noticed what looked like a little dog trotting up the driveway with something relatively big (a woodchuck?) in his mouth. In a matter of seconds, he had made his way up into the woods and disappeared somewhere behind a big log. I felt like there was something wrong but since I only got a brief glimpse, I couldn't put my finger on it. About 30 minutes later, there he was again jogging right past the house. This time I got a much better look and it was apparent that this poor guy has a skin condition. His tail was completely bare except for a little white pompom right on the end.

After doing a little research I learned that this condition is sarcoptic mange. Mange is caused by a mite that burrows under the skin, lays its eggs, and causes extreme itching. It is contagious and can easily spread to mates and pups. Sadly, it won't go away on its own and will ultimately result in complete coat loss and a long, miserable death. The good news, though, is that there is a treatment. If this was our dog, we could simply give him a couple of injections of Ivermectin to kill the mites, some cortisone to relieve the itching, and he'd be good as new. Alas, this is a wild animal so the treatment plan is a little more challenging. This is where the frozen mice come in.

The first step is to get this guy accustomed to coming to the same place to pick up an easy meal. (This isn't as easy as it sounds, as foxes are very wary.) So I've set up a feeding station with one of his usual meals - a fresh (albeit frozen) mouse - with an infrared camera so I can be sure its my sick fox (and not a raccoon, opossum, vulture, hawk or any other eater of mice) picking it up. Once I'm certain my fox has been trained to retrieve his daily mouse, I'll switch out the fresh one with a medicated one (that I can get from a wildlife rehab center). Then, I'll continue feeding him so I can monitor his condition.

So far, one mouse disappeared during the night but the camera failed so I have no idea who got it. I've re-adjusted the camera and have another mouse out there right now and am hoping for a taker tonight. In the meantime, I've been snap-trapping and stockpiling mice. I've got traps set all over both of our outbuildings and have had some good success. But we're talking weeks worth of mice and I suspect my natural supply (and freezer space) may be inadequate.

I've got a couple of backup plans. If I'm not getting any fox action at my feeding station, I can try moving it to a more private location. And if I run out of mice, I can pick up some more at a pet store. I'm just taking this rehab stuff one step at a time and will keep you posted on how it all works out.

We've got wood...

...ducks, that is.

Finally, I think we have a pair of Wood Ducks settling in to the nest box in the pond. Although we have plenty of natural nesting cavities for these guys, we erected the nest box in full view from the house in hopes that we'd get more frequent and exciting sightings of these gorgeous birds. We've had the box up for 3 years now, and this is the first year that we've had a pair of ducks that likes it well enough to return to it over the course of several days.

The Wood Duck is not only one of the most beautiful of all water fowl, but it also has some of the most interesting behavior. As its name implies, it is a duck that lives in the woods. It is totally at home hanging out in the tree tops, and we occasionally see them perched on branches high in the tree canopy.

By the way, the awesome photo is by Erica Marshall of muddyboots.org.

WNS updates

Read previous post "On the brink of bat-astrophe" to see what all the fuss is about...

UPDATE: March 11, 2009
More news on White Nose Syndrome. Unfortunately, it's not good. You can go here to get audio of a public radio story about the most recent discoveries. While I'm glad that WNS is starting to get more media attention, I am terribly saddened by the news itself.

UPDATE: March 5, 2009
Here's an article that my Fish and Wildlife friend just sent to me. It's good to know that some progress is being made. And even better to know that this problem is beginning to get mainstream media attention.

Mission: Possible

The snow has finally melted and we're starting to get hints of spring: warmer weather, thunderstorms and daylight savings time. The birds also tell me that spring is on the way. Yesterday I spotted a bluebird down by the pond (checking out the wood duck nest box - much too big for him) and I've been hearing the Carolina wrens calling for mates.

Since we bought our property 3 years ago (wow, has it been that long??), we've been tackling all kinds of crazy, back-breaking projects, all in the interest of making our land more naturally beautiful and hospitable to the wildlife. Like the time we (just the two of us) spent every weekend for two solid months, armed with only a chainsaw and a rented Bobcat, clearing the world's largest wood pile (don't believe me? that's minuscule me in the lower left-hand corner, for scale). Or the time we roped our friends into helping us dredge out the pond - with just shovels, some 2x4s and our respective SUVs.

So today's project was pretty mild by comparison. Our mission: to beautify the area around our oil well with some native wildflowers. Together, we raked, shoveled and relocated about 1/5 of an acre's worth of gravel, tilled up the soil, and broadcast a great "bird and butterfly" seed mix. Then we covered it all up with leaves and other vegetation (there's plenty of that lying around) to keep the seed moist and protected over the next several weeks. But until I see something sprout I'll be on pins and needles, convinced that nothing can grow in that contaminated soil, or that I did something wrong, or that I got a bad batch of seed.

Since our wood pile project last year, I've begun to think we can accomplish anything in the name of Nature. Once we got all that wood processed, we transformed one of the ugliest spots on the property into a beautiful meadow, and the birds, butterflies, deer and foxes have been rewarding us with their presence ever since. Let's hope we can do the same for our oil well area.