Perspectives of a Colorado Curmudgeon on topics ranging from Basketball to Music to Science & Religion to Travel to Memories, touching on a bit of everything.
Monday, January 21, 2013
RED FOX
Over at WEIT, Jerry Coyne has been posting some interesting pictures of foxes, and here is one I really like:
In Boulder, we have quite a variety of critters in our back yard, and the red fox is among them. The fox keep the squirrels on their toes!! Here is a picture that I took of a fox in the woods near Ushuaia:
7 comments:
Bizzy Brain
said...
So foxes keep the fox squirrels on their toes? Yesterday was National Squirrel Appreciation Day. It occurs every year on Jan 21. Had three frolicking at my bird feeders yesterday morning. They love the sunflower seeds. Am growing a walnut tree especially for them. It sprouted up on its own and at first I thought it was sumac. It was an attractive tree, so let it grow. Then one day detected a walnut aroma while near the tree and discovered walnuts on my "sumac" tree.
National Squirrel Appreciation Day - what a coincidence! The most interesting fox-squirrel adventure in our back yard was a fox bolting out of the ditch and snagging a young squirrel. Rhonda was outdoors and yelled and chased the fox. The fox decided to drop the squirrel and take off, and the squirrel sat for a moment, dazed, and then took off as well.
I DID take botany, hoosier, and know what photosynthesis and tropisms are, but the perfessor didn't tell us how to distinguish young sumac from young walnut. That would be up Mark's alley.
Dr. Mark A. has an undergrad degree in botany. Sumac and walnut leaves look practically identical to me. I ordinarily would cut down sumac, but thought I would let this one grow for awhile to see what ungodly shape it might take as they often grow crooked and weird. This one grew straight and started looking like a palm tree with a group of limbs at the top branching out like a patio unbrella. This umbrella was high enough to walk under and provided nifty shade. This was the second season for walnuts and the tree produced about 25. I neglected to gather the nuts this year and an industrious squirrel from across the road started gathering them up, unbeknownst to me, until the day I saw a flattened, furry blob stuck to the road. The poor guy had gathered all but two of the walnuts before he met his maker. Then I felt guilty for not gathering the nuts earlier and perhaps saving that squirrel's lfe.
7 comments:
So foxes keep the fox squirrels on their toes? Yesterday was National Squirrel Appreciation Day. It occurs every year on Jan 21. Had three frolicking at my bird feeders yesterday morning. They love the sunflower seeds. Am growing a walnut tree especially for them. It sprouted up on its own and at first I thought it was sumac. It was an attractive tree, so let it grow. Then one day detected a walnut aroma while near the tree and discovered walnuts on my "sumac" tree.
National Squirrel Appreciation Day - what a coincidence! The most interesting fox-squirrel adventure in our back yard was a fox bolting out of the ditch and snagging a young squirrel. Rhonda was outdoors and yelled and chased the fox. The fox decided to drop the squirrel and take off, and the squirrel sat for a moment, dazed, and then took off as well.
Bizzy - time for you to take a botany course :-)
I DID take botany, hoosier, and know what photosynthesis and tropisms are, but the perfessor didn't tell us how to distinguish young sumac from young walnut. That would be up Mark's alley.
I'm with you Bizzy - I can generally identify something as a plant, but beyond that my abilities are limited :-) Which Mark - doc?
Dr. Mark A. has an undergrad degree in botany.
Sumac and walnut leaves look practically identical to me. I ordinarily would cut down sumac, but thought I would let this one grow for awhile to see what ungodly shape it might take as they often grow crooked and weird. This one grew straight and started looking like a palm tree with a group of limbs at the top branching out like a patio unbrella. This umbrella was high enough to walk under and provided nifty shade.
This was the second season for walnuts and the tree produced about 25. I neglected to gather the nuts this year and an industrious squirrel from across the road started gathering them up, unbeknownst to me, until the day I saw a flattened, furry blob stuck to the road. The poor guy had gathered all but two of the walnuts before he met his maker. Then I felt guilty for not gathering the nuts earlier and perhaps saving that squirrel's lfe.
Forgot about primo Mark's degree. Interesting story - poor squirrel - road kill is often bothersome to me.
Post a Comment