A Few Hours in the Hedge

A large plume of kickout, and the size of this hole, makes me think this is a fox sette. No one was home on this fine day (no surpise in June) , but I will remember this location and check back in winter. The cap to the right is there just to show scale.


It was beautiful day -- cool and sunny, with everything green. The corn is up about 18 inches or so, and the first cut of hay is coming off of the fields. The barley is ready to be cut, and the first water lillies are staring to bloom.

I counted four dead deer on the highway this morning -- that's a fair amount of carnage for late Spring. Normally, I don't see that many deer strikes this time of year -- most of them seem to occur in the Fall.

At the gas station I watched a mocking bird chase a squirrel across the road and into the bushes -- her maternal juices were flowing, and her attack on the squirrel was absolutely unbridled.

I left Mountain at home today -- her nose is about healed, but one more week at the house will not do her any harm. With just Sailor and I in the field today, I decided to work the short hedge bordering the field across from the Country Club. This used to be a very productive little hedge for me, but I worked it too hard a few years back, and so I have left it alone for the last 18 months -- a chance to recover.

Sailor and I raised a deer bedding in the hedge, and we also come across the remains of another -- most likely an escaped gut-shot, or perhaps a vehicle-impact victim from the nearby road.

At the back of a small woods we located a nice large sette that looked pretty foxy. With corn coming up on either side, and thick stands of raspberries all around, it's a likely this spot will hold fox and coon when the weather gets cold again. I will remember this sette and leave it alone until then.

Sailor and I turned the corner at the back of the field, and checked a few blank holes before locating in a four-eyed groundhog sette that straddled an old fence line.

Sailor got it bottled pretty quickly, and neither one of us was too rushed. It wasn't going anywhere. This was a simple dig in pretty soft ground to an average-sized groundhog. Nothing spectacular, and Sailor came away without a scratch.

A fine way to start the day!




A very dead groundhog tied to a nice wobbly fence post made a fun set up for Sailor.