What Caught My Eye

My inside hours on the weekends are filled with lists, such as cleaning, filing and sorting. Since I am only here on weekends, I tend to be a bit puritanical in my efforts toward completing these lists.

Still, while moving some plants closer to the window mid-morning yesterday, a very bushy gray tail caught my eye as it moved with a level and steady pace dusting across the fallen leaves on the forest floor. The rhythm of movement as well as large size made me question whether it was truly a very large squirrel. So I stopped and stared intently at the open space ahead and was rewarded with the view of a healthy gray fox. His ears and tips of the tail hair were a rusty red. He walked casually but also carefully with his nose to the forest floor in search of small gray snacks, I am thinking.

He was not cautious in his behavior and did not look up once during the steady pace across the ravine. Eyes on the ground, he even came closer to the house in one of his zags which gave me a nice chance to see his lovely anatomy better through the binoculars . My husband has said that in the early mornings he has seen the same fox head out on this same trail and then by mid-morning it appears he comes back from his shopping trip heading away from the river.

We have a small mound of top soil which sits on the side of the gravel turn-around. I can see his foot prints and bottom where he rests on the warm earth in the evenings waiting for a rabbit dinner perhaps.

Another regular neighbor has made his presence known.