wildlife close encounters

[naomikritzer]

I took the girls to visit my grandmother today. Grammie lives in Edina; if you're familiar with Edinborough Park, her balcony overlooks the indoor playground. If you're not familiar with the area, let me describe it just a little: you take 494, which is an enormous highway, and then you exit onto France Avenue, which at this point is a six-lane-wide suburban through-street. As you get off the highway, to your left is a big box plaza and to your right is a tall office building and a Fuddrucker's hamburger place.

As I turned onto France Avenue, I saw what looked like a dog, and slowed down, not wanting to hit it.

It was a fox. Trotting across France Ave. I didn't get a picture -- I was too busy yelling "Molly! Kiera! LOOK AT THAT!!!" to bother digging out my cell phone.

It came within a few feet of the car, and then headed off into the parking lot of the office building.

I had never seen a fox in the wild before. Edina? At the intersection of France and 494? Not where I would have expected to spot one.

Comments

[mindyklasky.livejournal.com]

My parents live in Bloomington, just off 494 and 100. When I was out there this summer, I saw a fox sitting in the middle of a suburban street (no France Ave, but still!) It was "talking" (yipping) to a chained husky, then teasing/playing with the dog by going up to the limits of the dog's chain. I watched, fascinated, for about 15 minutes, keeping about two houses away.

When the fox finally ran off, I walked up to the husky's house. The owner came out and said that the fox had kits back in the "woods", a small slash of uncleared trees between two other large suburban homes.

I wonder how many of them are out there, essentially in the midst of the city?

[naomikritzer]

Lots, according to the Wikipedia entry. Like coyotes, they're apparently pretty good at making do with whatever's available, whether it's a forest or a suburb.

[sylvia-rachel.livejournal.com]

Cool! :D

I work in The Back of Beyond^tm (at the very northern edge of the city of Toronto, and right next to one of the city's many ravine parks), and we see some awesome wildlife -- groundhogs, rabbits, red-tailed hawks, cardinals, blue jays, wood doves, and even the occasional deer. We also had a fox, but she got hit by a car a few months ago :(

[naomikritzer]

Bummer about your fox. :-(

I see cool birds in my city all the time, because of the river. While driving past the Ford Plant (which is just across the Mississippi River from me) a while back, I saw two bald eagles hanging out on the air currents right above the traffic light.

[springbok1.livejournal.com]

Oooh, neat! :) Did the girls get a look at it before it ran away? I have seen a fox two places in the metro area.. The first time I saw one it was running around on the ice on Lake of the Isles. I was walking around the lake with mom, and we watched the fox doing the run and slide thing on the ice. There were a ton of people around, and lots of people were watching the fox. Eventually it ran off the ice and ran between two houses by the lake. The other time I've seen one was when I was driving to pick up lunch, on a road near work - which is industrial/office park lala land.

[naomikritzer]

The girls got a really good look at it and excitedly told Grammie all about it when we got to her apartment.

[rebecca-m.livejournal.com]

A year or two ago I saw a gray fox cross Portland right by Diamond Lake. It was odd!

[recordersmith.livejournal.com]

I saw a rabbit in downtown Chicago once. And I regularly see skunks in Cambridge..and wasn't there a coyote in Central Park a couple years ago? I think urban isn't as urban as we think.

[haddayr.livejournal.com]

WOW.

Also, how cool is to have a place for seniors which overlooks kids playing? Neat.