Wild life in Robbinsdale

The other day I thought I saw a fox loping down the parkway being harassed by a flock of crows. Today's paper carried a picture of a couple of foxes with a caption saying, "Don't be surprised to see a fox or two." Their abundance is attributed to a large population of rabbits, which is attributed to a warmer winter. The article did not attribute this to climate change, but we're certainly programed to do that ourselves.

Since predators go where the food is, Lynda Forbes from Brooklyn Park has found that the rabbits disappeared while a "fox stalked the yard and lay on the pool deck sunning itself, probably full of rabbit." Perhaps the fox I saw was Ms. Forbes' fox. Perhaps it was engaging the crows over a rabbit carcass. If so, it appears that the crows won that one. And Ms. Forbes will be free to use her pool for a time?

Meanwhile, in the less wild back yard at my Robbinsdale home, the robins have not returned, and the rabbits dare not enter. A mob of yipping Boston terriers is at least as good a deterrent to rabbits as a fox, and more appropriate for my back yard. It does appear quite likely that I really did see a fox loping down the parkway the other day.