A barking fox and other tales from Freezout Lake

Sounds. That’s the thing you leave the Freezout Lake Wildlife Management Area within your head if you’ve spent the night there.

Sounds of geese and ducks and swans, usually.

But not this time. not for me.

The sounds I was thinking of as I packed my stuff and headed out had nothing to do with birds.

It had to do with what I figure was a lone fox and then a few coyotes.

I had arrived in the late afternoon at the wildlife area south of Choteau to photograph and film the annual snow goose and tundra swan migration.

The geese are what draw the crowds, but after doing this on and off for 20-plus years now, I actually enjoy watching the swans more than the geese. There is an immense amount of grace in getting a 20-plus pound bird into the air and swans pull it off with a cacophony of wing flaps and song like no other bird on the planet.

But back to the fox and the coyotes.

I had set up my tent in a spot that I’ve set up camp before, just a pullout, really, sorta off the beaten path that was completely empty. I had an entire 100-plus acre “pond” as they’re called, to myself.

It didn’t hurt that it was a weekday and the weather forecast included a high wind warning and copious amounts of snow for the evening hours on the mountain passes, which I’m sure kept the crowds down.

After watching geese and ducks until dark I hit the hay and slept hard until the fox started barking at me. A fox bark is fairly unmistakable. It certainly isn’t a dog. I did remember seeing a hole not too far away that looked way bigger than a ground squirrel hole. My first thought was maybe a badger, but now I was thinking fox. The fox barked for quite awhile until it figured I wasn’t getting out of my tent.

I fell back to sleep and a few hours later a chorus of coyotes opened up, this time a bit farther away, up on the hillside it seemed. They yapped for awhile and then quieted down.

All through this there were waves of geese coming into the pond near me and as they landed it was a chorus of calls.

I was up well before first light, made a position next to the pond with my camera. Out in front of me were thousands of geese. In past years I’ve been unfortunate and had them all get up and fly away before first light. But this time, they got up, flew a short ways and landed again and then just as another huge flock was about to land with them they changed their minds and all took off at once.

How many thousands I can only imagine, but it was quite the roar.

Then it was over.

The sun was just creeping through the clouds.

The fox was nowhere to be seen. But I knew he was close as I stuffed my gear into the backseat and headed out.

The weather forecast was spot-on, too. Marias Pass was getting pounded with snow.

Such is spring in the Rockies.