A friend of mine – Jason Pittman (Professor of Geosciences and co-conspirator in the http://dolookdown.org project) let me borrow one of those automatic trail cameras, and I set it up near the compost pile, hoping to catch a picture or two of the bear that visited a couple of weeks ago.  Checking the SD card this morning, I was surprised to find these images of a visiting fox!  Surprised because, though I often see foxes running hear and there, I’ve only ever seen skunks and raccoons browsing the compost.

The fox arrives from the East at 12:10 AM PST, then quickly retreats – perhaps because the camera makes some sort of noise, or flashes some sort of light? – returning briefly (assuming it’s the same fox) at 12:31 AM, before again quickly retreating.

At 12:42 AM, the camera captures the (a?) fox grabbing something from the compost pile.

Later, at 2:54 AM, the fox returns.

A brief glimpse of the stealthy beast just a few minutes later..

…about twenty minutes after that…

…and a final glimpse an hour or so later to finish the night.

The secret life of the garden is exciting!