Saturday morning I went out in the yard looking to see if any spring migrants had come in overnight. Walking out past the shed I could hear the baby chickadees calling from their nest box and the parents flying back and forth through the nearby pear tree. Otherwise, it had been pretty quiet and I quickly got to our pier. As I approached the ramp up to it, I noticed an animal sitting about 40 ft out from the ramp.
It seems largely unaware of me at first as it was looking out over the marsh and scratching an itch. Before I got my phone out to take a video, it had turned around and was looking the other way. But still ignoring me. After several seconds it stood up and noticed me but seemed comfortable enough to take care of another itch. During that time I tried moving away from the base of the ramp. I wouldn't have as good of a view, so not video, but I was afraid I was blocking it's path off. It is about six feet down from the pier to the ground.
It watched me as I stood to the side and then moved to get a better view again. So I turned to walk away, better to give it the space it wanted than to stress it or make it aggressive. About five steps into my retreat, I heard it jump down into the reeds.
We see the foxes around occasionally and even catch them on our camera trap.
