Monday, February 19, 2007

A Glimpse of Forest Life

Lee was down at the house with Bruce and me. We were waiting those last few minutes before Brian, Lisa and the grandchildren arrived. Part of Brian’s favorite dinner, roast partridge breasts, were waiting in the refrigerator. Bruce had taken all the bones off. The meatless carcasses would be dinner for the fox, or marten or whomever.

Suddenly, young Freddy the Fox appeared. He walked right up to those meatless partridge bones and picked one out. After hopping back to the ground, Freddie sat right in front of us and proceeded to eat the entire bony carcass. He couldn’t get the whole thing in his mouth but just sat there and chewed the whole thing into pieces. We opened the door to see better. He looked at us and kept on eating. We could literally hear him crunching the bones. Once he had finished one, Freddie took a second carcass and walked off with it. One by one he carried the remaining carcasses off until all four were hidden somewhere.

The three of us watched entranced by the show. Of course, we were all trying to figure out how to keep this show going so the grandchildren could see it. How would we keep everyone from scaring the fox away? Would the food last that long? Well, you know the answer to these questions. Freddie disappeared with the final piece and the car rolled down the driveway.

Hopefully some other fox will visit during the next few days. Sam, Max and Amy will get a chance to see one of these wonderful animals up close doing something in its natural environment. Between their parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles, we will keep looking around to show them the activities of nature’s animals that are all around us in the Northwoods.

Meanwhile chaos has come to live in the Kerfoot household. Those noisy, delightful, exhausting grandchildren are here.

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