A white Christmas is what many of us in the North Country conjure in our imaginations as December 25th approaches. Our anticipation measure the day-to-day against against picture perfect point of reference. Ground buried in white snow. Trees and buildings frosted like gingerbread houses with more snow. A moon light the one we’ve been enjoying provides nice nocturnal balance, but by day the snow-simplified white world is embellished with greens and reds. A Christmas tree and wreaths, a spray of holly gathered with red ribbon, and so forth and so on. You know what I’m referring to, right? Sometimes, however, our rural runway for the incoming holiday season is less snowy. Less storybook. But more real, rural, revitalizing… More wild! This foxy photograph offers a refreshingly real and wild dash of green and red (orange)!
Although today’s update might not be the most conventional red and green Hallmark holiday card, I’m hoping it will help celebrate the joy and gratitude that Susan and I have been able to experience as Rosslyn’s stewards across these last eighteen and a half years. Photographed on December 12, 2011 and debuting in “Fox & Squirrel” on April 26, 2012, I return to this red fox (Vulpes vulpes) now as a harbinger of happy holidays ahead.
Festivus fox? Foxy Festivus?! Sure, why not? Cheers yo Seinfeld and Frank Costanza!
At Rosslyn we’re fortunate to witness both red fox and gray fox (though lately our wildlife cameras favor the latter.)
Remembering the Red Fox
Let’s take a wander down memory lane to the year a red fox regularly visited our front lawns.
“In recent weeks a fox has been frequenting our side lawn in pursuit of gray squirrels who gorge themselves at the bird feeders. This morning he blasted across the grass and nabbed breakfast while I watched. I scrambled to record this miniature Adirondack safari, but only managed to get my iPhone video camera turned on in time to see him once he’d already caught his unfortunate prey.”
Here’s the video from January 26, 2012.
The memories flooded back this winter because that handsome (if somewhat short-legged) fox in the video clip above became a frequent Rosslyn visitor. Perhaps affected by the virtually snow-less conditions or more likely by my bride’s enthusiastic bird and squirrel feeding regimen, the fox made daily — and sometimes twice daily — tours of our front lawn. I was usually the one to spot him early in the morning while feeding Griffin breakfast, though Griffin’s attentive window watching served as a reliable early notification system.
[…]
Despite the emotionally disturbing reality of observing any predator-prey showdown, the fox’s cunning and efficiency intrigued me… I’ll save details for another time as I know that my bride suffers these descriptions. She’s informed my on multiple occasions that our yard is a safe haven for wildlife, which is a laudable decision, but difficult to enforce. So far we’ve failed to communicate the message to the foxes and hawks… (Source: Fox & Squirrel)
Virtually snowless conditions. A red fox. Feels familiar.
Happy, healthy, and wild Festivus (soon) to you!
What do you think?