Good morning, Kimball Welcome to the party. The egret and a blue heron patrol my pond fairly regularly and thin the bullfrog population. Too bad for the frogs, but they would overran the pond and the frogs would eat al the fishes, so it's a balance.

I'm not any sort of an expert but I'd vote for fox on this one, based on the head/ears shape/proportion. If this was a young fox, 10am might not be too unreasonable. Foxes gotta get a clue (and breakfast) too.. You might call DNR or the Parks/Rec folks or the Extension office (if they have such a thing here) to see if there have been other sightings. If they have, you can find out whether you need to be concerned about the critter being ill/scary. But HOW COOL to see that in the yard! I saw one about 1/2 mile from the house one early evening, very surprising to me but not totally unexpected since we have several woodsy areas nearby, along with the race track/training area. Lynne in Bowie Here is a link that might be useful: Link to compare pics of local coyote and fox

Last summer I had a brown bottle with plants starting in it outside. I brought it in-took out and potted the starts-washed the outside of the jar-THEN when I started to do the inside with a bottle brush there was this lime green lump inside (at first I thought it was goop) But no! It was a little tree frog hanging on for dear life! So he go put back outside-back to work! They always make me smile-CJ

https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&id=07664B0162A23F8D314E75A1C2E55BDA184D77DA&thid=OIP.vCCb089NWrRyjyDIfoh1xQHaEx&mediaurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kenconwayphotography.com%2Fimg%2Fs%2Fv-3%2Fp364803667-4.jpg&exph=516&expw=800&q=gooseberry+neck%2c+snowy+owl&selectedindex=16&qpvt=gooseberry+neck%2c+snowy+owl&ajaxhist=0&vt=0&eim=0,1,2,6 There is a neck of land called Gooseberry Neck in Westport MA which used to be where spotting towers were sited in WWII. The people abutting it take some really nice photos of the wildlife and the Ocean. During the winter a snowy owl is around and justifiably is the subject of a lot of photos. A gorgeous animal. Sorry if I'm drifting too far afield. - Jon