My first catch of this trapping season is a Grey fox!

The first day of trapping season begin last Sunday, which found me with still un-waxed traps. Sunday afternoon I managed to get four of my eight coil spring traps waxed.

On Monday, I went out and set a hay set where fox sign had been the year before, with one 1 1/2 and my only 1 3/4 coil spring traps. My second to last 1 1/2 I set close by, where I know raccoons enter the woods. Then with the remaining 1 1/2 coil spring I intended to set in a small stream, near by. The set I intended to do was a simple one aimed at raccoon, that involved putting a piece of tin foil on the pan of the trap. When I got the stream however, I found it to be dried up. Looking around, a fallen log caught my eye. The roots of the log were in such a way, that they formed a small tunnel that a animal the size of a raccoon could go through. Looking at the dirt, I could see that some animal had been walking under the root. Still wanting to try out the tin foil I made a set under the tree root, with just the tin foil attached to the pan visible. Then I sprayed some raccoon urine as an experiment on the tree root.

Two days later on Wednesday, when I made my daily trap check, I had the Grey Fox in it–caught by only two toes. I was immensely glad, that I have been checking traps in the morning, instead of the evening as was my custom last year, which would probably have allowed it to escape. The snow that morning allowed my to see a little of what the Fox, was thinking before catching him. It appeared that he had walked up the log, either smelled raccoon or spied the tin foil. Then he turned around in circles a few times and jumped off the log to checkout the trap.