Observations by wcmarten

One coyote crossed North Whitney Way from Sheboygan Avenue, lumbered north on WW to duck into the parking lot where there used to be a church. Emerged soon thereafter, indirectly confronted one car stopped at the traffic light and then went east on Old Middleton Road toward the new Walker state office building. A more sprightly coyote came out of the church parking lot quite soon after this, crossed Whitney Way, and also went east.

As I was driving west on Buffalo Trail the fox ran from between 5102 and 5110 across the street to go between 5105 and 5109, i.e. north to south. He/she is the one I've called thinner than thin before. It is thin, it does not appear to be in distress.

Somewhere on the sidewalk on the eastern side of North Whitney Way I saw what I believe to have been coyote scat. I would not be so confident of the identification had I not talked to a neighbor who lives farther south on North Whitney Way who found a dead rabbit on her step that appeared to have been killed by a coyote. These are the first reports of coyotes again on the eastern side of North Whitney Way that I am familiar with.

What I believe to have been a woodchuck scurried across North Eau Claire from the major driveway into/out of the Monticello apartments and ran along the southern edge of the tennis courts. Didn't ask how much wood it could chuck. Too slow and too far away to take a picture. Fence around the community gardens is too tight for it to enter there.

A noisy crow to my right as I walked east on the sidewalk along the Old Middleton Road ramp called my attention to two other crows dive bombing a hawk (red-tailed I believe; see my other hawk observations in this area). My camera skills and my camera make it a little hard to see the white breasted hawk in the center of the picture, sitting on a street-light arm over the westbound Old Middleton Road ramp.

I'm sure it is the same fox as my previous observations; others must be seeing it as much or more than I. I just seem to be obsessed with reporting on it because it has an established pattern. First saw it this morning on the sidewalk at the driveway to 5126 Buffalo Trail. It was exhibiting the dog behavior of sniffing at the sidewalk and putting its head down to get the ear to what it had been sniffing (with a dog you are lucky if it's dirt). I vaguely remember our dog giving the same area extra attention on the early morning walk today. At its leisure the fox crossed Buffalo Trail heading south into the backyard of 209 Green Lake Pass.

As I was preparing for my 11 am dog walk, I glanced out of the front door window at 214 Green Lake Pass in time to see the scrawny American red fox galloping, no probably cantering, east down the center of Buffalo Trail from about 5122 to 5118/5114 where it turned north and I lost sight of it behind the big evergreen next to the sidewalk. Assuming it might have headed to the feeding station on a deck near there, I stopped watching. My leashed dog and I did walk down that direction on the far sidewalk but did not see it. When we were heading west on Door Drive, the fox emerged from between 5123 and 5130 at 11:08, paused about thirty yards from us, checked us out, and then went casually on its way south between 5129 and 5133 toward Regent Street. My dog never saw it, so there was no alarm one way or the other. This is my second time to see the fox around 11 am in our neighborhood. I'm still no faster getting my camera out.

Fox leisurely galloped out from between 113 and 201 Green Lake Pass, crossed the street, and headed toward Whitney Way between 110 and 114 GLP. I'm sure it was the same small, scrawny (though not distressed--it just won't be chosen to represent the species on a calendar) fox that I saw April 14 but I was too far away today to see if it had the collar and ear tag from before. It didn't see me or my leashed dog.

Working around the flower bed in the front yard with our small dog on her stakeout line when a small, scrawny red maybe American red fox ran south on Green Lake Pass before heading west toward Whitney Way between 206 and 210 GLP. Must have come out of the cul de sac that ends in the apartment lawn/woods north as a fox did early morning several months ago. It was alert to me and our dog but not frightened. Dog was so surprised she didn't even bark.
I need instant replay. Thinking about the sighting overnight, I am convinced it was an American Red Fox.

When the Community Gardens were where the new state office building is being constructed, there were two roosts for hawks. Sometimes now one of the hawks will be along the railroad tracks to the north of this location or even on the light poles projecting over University Avenue. I'm almost positive the hawks in the picture were red-tailed hawks.

Single dark heron--maybe blue, maybe grey, definitely not white--flying much higher than the crows around the park. Came from the north (Lake Mendota?) and was heading south. Had been watching for the pair of sandhill cranes that usually show up in the park in the spring and the fall, so surprised to see the crooked neck.

Fox started to cross from houses to the south to the woods and ravine between the apartment buildings to the north of Regent Street, then retreated from the median strip back in front of our car to a pine tree in front of the house at 4801. This seems to me to be a wildlife corridor since during the summer I saw at least one of the nine neighborhood turkeys crossing at the same place in the other direction. It is also about the place where a fox emerged from the wooded area this spring and headed toward Regent Street, but I lost track of it.

As I started to open our front door around 5:10 am at 214 Green Lake Pass, Madison, to retrieve the newspaper I saw what I'm sure was a fox, not a coyote, galloping (not trotting) out of the cul du sac and heading south. It was dark; I suppose the fox was red.

Maybe 15 years ago we saw a coyote following the same route out of the cul du sac and heading south on Green Lake Pass also in the early morning.