New Mystery

Shortly after I hoisted the white flag in yesterday's post signaling surrender to the squirrels on the contested tomato and tomatillo plants, Cindy pointed out to me that she hadn't seen a single squirrel all day.

We kept a watch out and didn't see any squirrels the rest of the day, even under the bird feeder.  Since she had just reloaded the feeder and the Sparrows, House Finches and Scrub Jays had been patronizing it heavily, which meant there was plenty of seed scattered on the ground, the absence of squirrels was unusual.  In fact, it was downright spooky.

So where are they?  Is there a California Ground Squirrel convention in town this week?  Have they all gone to the beach for 4th of July?  Has the Gray Fox managed to take out the entire squirrel burrow population in one night?  Has some idiotic neighbor poisoned them all?

Fox Poop?

Later in the evening I walked down to look at the bird feeder and discovered a clue:  what looks a lot like fox poop directly beneath the feeder.  Hmmmm.  It looks like Mr. Gray Fox has claimed the feeder as his territory.

Since male gray foxes apparently have a very strong scent, that may be what is scaring the squirrels away.  I told Cindy that we should move the poop over to the driveway, away from the feeder and see if the squirrels reappear.  If they do come back the fox poop might keep them away from those tomatoes.

It's kind of a weird feeling in the garden without them scampering around.  We've become used to their presence and especially the acrobatic antics of the young ones.

We kind of miss them when they're not here.