Afternoon Visitor

A pair of moving ears caught my eye. Looking down from my desk’s window, there was a gray fox sauntering over the brook’s footbridge and across to the old stonewall. It stopped to listen. Seeing golfers moving down the green, it concealed itself between the stonewall and the ancient sugar maple. Like a child playing peek-a-boo, its head periodically popped up over the stonewall. Occasionally, it wandered around a fallen tree looking frequently back at our birdfeeder but returned to its game of peek-a-boo whenever golfers walked by. Dog and I had seen this little visitor frequently over the winter. Smaller and thicker necked than the more abundant red fox, the gray has a black mane running the length of its tail ending in a definite black tip. Red foxes' tail tips are always white. In pre-colonial times it was the only fox in our area. Now with the return of more forest habitat, they are making a comeback. Well adapted to the woods, they are the only American canine with true climbing ability. They are omnivores with a strong preference for cottontails and other small mammals. As optimists, they also like fruits, insects, birds and more vegetation than reds. But like reds, they change their diet according to what is seasonally abundant. Grays are monogamous, mating in the early part of the year. By now the kits have been born and are hidden somewhere in the rocky woodlands. Both parents tend the litter of 1 - 7 kits. The young are weaned by 3 months, and hunt for themselves at 4 months. The family group will remain together until the fall when the young reach maturity and go off on their own. (Photo from itsnature.org website)