Red Fox in the Don Valley
Outdoor Ontario

Red Fox in the Don Valley

Dr. John

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I was driving north on Bayview this morning, just north of Rosedale Valley Road, when a red fox trotted out in front of me and fortunately thought better of it and returned to the side of the road.  I noted in the rear view mirror that it made it safely across after I passed.  I have occasionally seen red foxes in and around this section of the Don Valley, but this was the first one in a few years.


Shortsighted

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Thanks for that, Doc.  An impressionist painting in my head; in that a red fox so imagined seen in the kind of golden, early morning light that I've been bathing in of late, with my sparrow mates as company, although they don't say much, nostalgically married to the memory of taking the Don Valley Pkwy back in the day when one could expect to enjoy a commute, at speed, and not the humiliation of a constipated progress, if you can call it that, in stop & go fashion while wondering why you even ventured onto a congested artery like that in the first place.  I prefer to remember the DVP as unclogged, an open expanse with undulating pavement that made 'hi-speed' a challenge in an old car without traction-control and computer-assisted suspension, when a sudden encounter with a red fox might have been even more piquant. 


Charline

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I heard there was a red fox in that area a few years ago. Glad it is still around. Maybe there is a family.


Dr. John

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If you want to drive the DVP unclogged, you have to try sometime after midnight on a weeknight.


I think red foxes are always around.  The last one I saw was in the Necropolis, near Riverdale Farm.  It was curled up and sleeping.  It awoke when we were a few feet away, took a nice leisurely stretch, and then trotted away, not too concerned.  I know one had a den on the slopes of the valley near the viaduct a few years ago, but I never knew where exactly and never saw the kits.