I’ve become sufficiently complacent about Bravo and Cleo’s livestock guarding abilities that I imagine all the sheep predators have left Sullivan (or at least our parts of it).  So I was surprised this morning when we arrived at the Woodbury place, and Cass and Luc immediately went into their predator-tracking mode, carefully and deliberately following scent trails in the grass.  I hadn’t seen this behavior in a while, so I didn’t entirely trust my interpretation, but as we got close to the flock, there was a sign that even I could pick up —

fresh canid scat on a prominent spot in the middle of the pasture.  I’ve often seen coyote scat on top of a rock in the middle of a trail, placed for maximum territorial announcement; this was in the right place, but seemed a little small for coyote, so I assume a fox was visiting the flock last night.  This is the same rock where sheep had trampled sensitive fern two days earlier, and still very close to the flock.

I’m assuming that a fox would have a hard time killing any of my sheep at this point (expect perhaps the tiny triplet lamb that refuses to grow), but foxes can certainly take newborn lambs. I’m thinking that the big white dogs made quite a ruckus last night, so it’s surprising that the fox got as close as it did.

Cass and Luc were disappointed to be late to the party, but ready to take on any future threats.