(Betsy Bloom/Daily News file photo) A red fox from years ago running alongside M-95, in better circumstances than the one I came across late Thursday near where M-95 connects with eastbound M-69.

Since the Daily News switched to mail delivery, basically making us a morning newspaper, I regularly drive home late at night after finishing the next day’s edition.

I go fairly slow and often will pull over to let others pass, because I prefer to travel at my own pace. I’ve reached the age when my night vision isn’t what it used to be. I also know how much wildlife is out there, large and small, and don’t want to run afoul of anything.

The years have taught me where to watch for certain animals. Sections of U.S. 2 on Iron Mountain’s north side near A&W and Holiday Inn Express, for example, have multiple skunks and deer. Deer also like the ditches alongside the four-lane stretch on M-95 just past the north junction.

I’ve so far been able to avoid hitting them. Others have not. I know that’s reality, that animals and motorists often can be on deadly intersecting paths, especially on such major routes as U.S. 2, M-95 and M-69 that I use for the daily commute.

Still, it’s a reality that can be jarring. Such as late Thursday night.

This past winter and into summer, I’ve regularly seen a single red fox trotting roadside near Randville Bar & Grill on M-95 or the parking area on M-69.

One early evening, while still light enough to see, it was calmly waiting on the shoulder of M-69 by the pullover site for semi-trailer trucks, just past the turn off M-95. I stopped and actually waved it on, the same as I might do for a pedestrian. Somehow it understood, crossing to the other side, then turning to look at me before continuing on. I’d never had such an encounter with a wild predator before.

Throughout the summer, having the fox appear perhaps once or twice a week as I headed home became something that made the routine, 25-mile drive special. I’d even told my brother about it Wednesday.

Which is why it was a gut punch late Thursday when my headlights revealed the broken body of a fox in the road on M-95, just north of Randville Bar & Grill.

Was it the same fox? I don’t know. But the location fit. Red fox do establish territories, especially if hunting conditions are good. And according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, “red fox tend to be solitary animals, and always hunt alone.”

I admit I get attached to the wildlife I manage to see on a repeated basis. The backyard deer, though this summer they have tested my affection by consuming a fair amount of the flowers we carefully planted and nurtured. Big Bunny when he dwelled under the garden tractor shed. The Eastern phoebes that nest each year over the light on my mom’s quilt shop.

But they’re not my pets. Nature regularly reinforces that it dictates what happens to these creatures — as do humans.

So I know the handsome group of five bucks I admired earlier this week might not be long for this world come hunting season. The red foxes can be killed by coyotes that view them as competitors, or end up being trapped for their fur.

Yet even though I understand, it doesn’t make dealing with that reality any easier when it comes to pass.

What might have happened Thursday, I can only guess. The fox had repeatedly demonstrated it was pretty savvy about vehicles and roads. I can only hope it didn’t suffer long.

But I would like to put in a modest plea to drivers to proceed carefully when traveling through the north woods after dark, even during dusk and dawn when the light isn’t good and a number of animal species become more active. Slow down when possible. Watch the ditches and shoulders for eyeshine, which I’ve found will appear up even when the outline of the animal itself can’t be seen.

A little effort might help make a difference.

*****

A short note that migration already has begun in the region, though not in earnest.

Flocks of common nighthawks could be seen Tuesday in Iron Mountain and Thursday over Six Mile Lake.

These are among the last birds to return in spring and the earliest to depart. This is due to the distance they travel. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s All About Bird website, www.allaboutbirds.org, common nighthawks have “one of the longest migration routes of any North American bird. Most travel over land through Mexico and Central America, although many do pass through Florida and Cuba, flying over the Gulf to reach their wintering grounds in southern South America.”

Nighthawks are not related to hawks — more closely aligned with whippoorwills — and are more active at dusk and dawn than night. They have a swooping flight to pursue insects in the air, with prominent white oval patches on the undersides of their wings. They can be heard after dark with what All About Birds described as a “sharp, electric peent call.”

They’re classified as a “Common Bird in Steep Decline,” with a 48% population decline from 1966 to 2019, according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey. Reductions in flying insects and a loss of nesting habit — they favor open rural areas and flat gravel rooftops in urban settings — are among the reasons for the decline, according to All About Birds.

Betsy Bloom can be reached at 906-774-2772, ext. 240, or bbloom@ironmountaindailynews.com.