Grey Fox sighting near downtown Navasota, TX

[Butzbach]

A Grey Fox bolted across the road about 15 yards in front of my bicycle this morning. I was about 2 miles South of downtown Navasota, TX. Its tail while long was skinny like a mountain lion. After scouting some pictures on the web I guess this is fairly typical. They have a black dorsal stripe that makes it look even skinnier. Descriptions say it has a more "catlike" face than other foxes and I can testify. Between that and the tail I wasn't really sure what I was looking at. It was long and lean and a joy to see it moving fast. I scanned the next few houses I passed to see if there were any chicken coops. I didn't see any. It was surprising to see a fox out in daylight. About a mile mile later I saw a Cooper's hawk hunting a dove. The dove won today. Quite the Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom nature ride today.

[ElPistolero]

Excellent!
I have one that passes through my back yard (about 40 miles NNW of you). Similarly skinny and, in fact, I thought it was a stray cat the first time or two I saw it. One time, there was a roadrunner between me and the fox as I stepped out of the house; the bird sided with escaping closer to me than to the fox.

[Butzbach]

Excellent!
I have one that passes through my back yard (about 40 miles NNW of you). Similarly skinny and, in fact, I thought it was a stray cat the first time or two I saw it. One time, there was a roadrunner between me and the fox as I stepped out of the house; the bird sided with escaping closer to me than to the fox.

Saw my first Road Runner in a long time about a month ago in a subdivision just South of College Station. I hadn’t seen one since Fort Sill, OK in 1980.

[ElPistolero]

Saw my first Road Runner in a long time about a month ago in a subdivision just South of College Station. I hadn’t seen one since Fort Sill, OK in 1980.

Well, ... (got to watch my Texianisms or superman will get me) ... we have roadrunners all over the place here for the last 20 years ... many nesting pairs ... they barely even run from me or the wife as we go about our dailies. Some years are a few, most years are about 4 pairs.
We had red foxes a few years back, but not recently.
Plenty of owls and hawks, every year or two a pair of Mexican eagles. A few armadillos, most of which I convert to ashtrays with a favourite .44mag load. We feed the cardinals, finches, (oops, almost typed a forbidden)-mouses, chickadees, and hummbirds.

[wv109323]

We have two that come down to visit nearly every night. We feed them popcorn. We can actually call them down with food. The gray fox is in the feline group and the red fox is in the canine group.

[Buck Shot]

They climb trees!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwCFnQJkfxU

Here in Virginia, we have a male that seems almost tame. I saw him trotting along in a field maybe 15' off the road, and I stopped my truck and looked at him from maybe 15-20' away and he just looked at me as if to say "You wanna piece of me???" and went on his merry way, parallel to the road, lifting his leg to mark his territory. At the time, I figured he must have had rabies or otherwise be sick, but then I saw him again (or another tame one?) maybe a month later, and then again a month or two after that. Very strange that he shows no fear of men. Normally you never see them, or just get a glimpse.

I always think they're red foxes when I first see them, since they have so much red in their fur, but then you see the darker guard hairs...

Somewhere I heard that their boom-and-bust cycles follow the rabbits' boom-and-bust cycles, which (like the sunspot cycle) is apparently 11 years.

[Winger Ed.]

Foxes have made quite a comeback.

Before we moved here, I'd only seen 3 my whole life.
One crossed the road near the Lewisville fishing barge around 1970.
I saw a dead one in Grand Prarie in the late 80s.
And one going by in the Hill Country just before dark in the 90s when I was deer hunting.

Here, we have a couple of mated pairs- one pair on the property next door, and they've made new ones for the last 3 years.

[Thumbcocker]

We have two that come down to visit nearly every night. We feed them popcorn. We can actually call them down with food. The gray fox is in the feline group and the red fox is in the canine group.

Both are canines.

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[popper]

Lewisville fishing barge around 1970 Didn't it disappear shortly after that? Used to be one on Lavon too.

[Texas by God]

I've seen more foxes and bobcats in Westover Hills Ft Worth than I have on the place.

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[jsizemore]

We have plenty of red and grey that runs the river bordering the property. They seem to breed across their lines. We call the ones with a white tip red. The real distinction is the greys have a rotating forearm so can climb which makes folks think they are from the cat family. They aren't.

They are smart predators but are also prey so they switch up their patterns. Scout one day, hunt the next. Move on to the next area. Folks that put out food disrupts that. Less energy expended hunting when folks put food out for them.

I was in town discussing rabies and wild critters to a lady when a grey crossed the street at close to noon one day. I had her call animal control while I followed it. Eventually animal control caught it, checked it and it was rabid. It appeared to be healthy but was in the earliest stages of rabies.

[Winger Ed.]

Lewisville fishing barge around 1970 Didn't it disappear shortly after that? Used to be one on Lavon too.

They've had problems over the years, and the last time I was fishing on it,,,
maybe 10 years ago, it was there and operational, but really, really showing its age.

I think the one on Lavon is long gone.

[Butzbach]

We have plenty of red and grey that runs the river bordering the property. They seem to breed across their lines. We call the ones with a white tip red. The real distinction is the greys have a rotating forearm so can climb which makes folks think they are from the cat family. They aren't.

They are smart predators but are also prey so they switch up their patterns. Scout one day, hunt the next. Move on to the next area. Folks that put out food disrupts that. Less energy expended hunting when folks put food out for them.

I was in town discussing rabies and wild critters to a lady when a grey crossed the street at close to noon one day. I had her call animal control while I followed it. Eventually animal control caught it, checked it and it was rabid. It appeared to be healthy but was in the earliest stages of rabies.

I was thinking "rabies" about this one too as it was about 10:00 AM.

[pworley1]

We have a Red Fox that dens on the east side of our property and a Grey Fox that dens on the west side. We see the Red Fox much more often than the Grey.

[contender1]

Nice to enjoy seeing any wildlife.

But just because one is spotted out in daylight, does NOT mean it automatically has rabies. In fact,, foxes are often spotted during daylight in places near dens or other places they feel comfortable.

[Butzbach]

Nice to enjoy seeing any wildlife.

But just because one is spotted out in daylight, does NOT mean it automatically has rabies. In fact,, foxes are often spotted during daylight in places near dens or other places they feel comfortable.

Thank you Captain Obvious!

[jsizemore]

I was thinking "rabies" about this one too as it was about 10:00 AM.

Fox is usually fairly purposeful in his/her direction. Like somebody on a schedule to be somewhere. This one would stop and gaze around with the 1000yard stare then trot in a circle and head out in a random direction not always the original direction. I've seen healthy animals show up like clockwork when the horses would get their winter sweet feed. They'd sit and wait for the horses to move off and check for stray feed in or around the feed bowl. Before the spring grass would sprout and the bugs show up, they will dig through the horse droppings in the pasture looking for undigested grain and bugs along with the crows.

We do have a problem along the river with rabies in fox and coon.

[Burnt Fingers]

We've got a pair living out back in the jungle.

We don't see them often though.

[David2011]

The only gray fox I’ve ever seen was in the middle of the street in front of the courthouse in Brownfield, TX. It appeared healthy and without a care in the world.

[echo154]

I was lucky enough to have one use the driveway culvert as a den. I come home from work and sit out front as the sun started up a watch her bring in food while I drank coffee. later the younguns started coming out for short periods. Then one day they were all gone. Coyotes are everywhere, even in town as are deer (people put out feed.....gee wonder how blue toungue and lip curl spread). Saw a young bobcat roadkill.....she was in otherwise good shape.....good coat, teeth and fur. First one I saw for at least 40 years. Never seen a grey fox, just the local red ones. At my grandad's house he had tame squirrels. Mostly red, but then an albino. Later he had a dark black squirrel. Turkey are fairly plush around here too. Nice to see some remnants of better times!