More suburban wildlife

Bull snakes are quite common in Colorado, and this year there seem to be more than usual.  Earlier this week, I saw another one on the trail while riding to work.  It was probably around 4 feet long.

Bull snake on the bike trail

Bull snakes are pretty good to have around, though it can be alarming to come across one if you don't spot it soon enough.

This morning, as I sat drinking coffee, I saw a pair of foxes in my back yard.  They were pretty scrawny and were looking for food.  One of them came right up on the deck while the other stayed a little farther back.

A pair of foxes in my back yard

I had to chase them off so they wouldn't bother our cats.  I didn't know how they got into the yard, but I imagined having to open the gate to let them out.  That turns out to have been fairly naive, and as soon as I opened the back door, they had no trouble making their exit.  One leaped clear over the back fence, while the other scrambled through a gap where the fence is broken.

I had no idea that a fox could perch atop a fence like a cat.  But one of them did just that, once it got to the other side of my neighbor's yard.  It sat there watching me for quite a while.