Now that summer is here, I like to go out on my deck with my binoculars when dusk is approaching. Usually I am drawn outside by a bird song that I don’t recognize. I search in the direction of the sound, and most of the time, find the singer. After that I just start exploring the backyard with my bionic eyes – seeing things up high that I never notice (my large old oak tree isn’t looking good) or spying on former woodpecker holes in the trees, hoping to see an owl has selected it for his summer home.
My foxes seem to be gone. Now I only see one of the original five, and not too often. I hope the others found homes and started families but since they are a pack animal, I suspect maybe something bad happened to them. What eats a fox? A coyote would. I’ve never seen one, but evidently their population is growing in NJ. An eagle would go after a small fox; there are definitely eagles in NJ. More likely a human predator trapped the fox for its fur. I study the forest canopy undergrowth looking for a fox den – some kind of life, but there is none tonight.
Back to the binocular inspection of my back forty… it feels a little voyeuristic to bring unsuspecting targets so keenly in view from a distance. Nothing is off limits – including the neighbor’s place. Now before you call the cops, their house is really far down the road and I was checking out the dog in their backyard, not trying to peer through their windows. He grows Christmas trees and I was thinking I could pick one out this year from the warmth of my living room without actually going over there.
I checked out the roof on my shed tonight; it still has a lot of years on it. And my caged tulip trees are doing great; the deer don’t seem to be nibbling at the leaves escaping the cage. The bushes along the shed are browning up and I don’t know why. I really ought to cut down the invasive Russian Olive tree. These trees are difficult, if not impossible, to get rid of because they keep putting up “suckers”. It laughs at me when I brutally prune it. And it’s never produced an edible olive.
My foxes seem to be gone. Now I only see one of the original five, and not too often. I hope the others found homes and started families but since they are a pack animal, I suspect maybe something bad happened to them. What eats a fox? A coyote would. I’ve never seen one, but evidently their population is growing in NJ. An eagle would go after a small fox; there are definitely eagles in NJ. More likely a human predator trapped the fox for its fur. I study the forest canopy undergrowth looking for a fox den – some kind of life, but there is none tonight.
Back to the binocular inspection of my back forty… it feels a little voyeuristic to bring unsuspecting targets so keenly in view from a distance. Nothing is off limits – including the neighbor’s place. Now before you call the cops, their house is really far down the road and I was checking out the dog in their backyard, not trying to peer through their windows. He grows Christmas trees and I was thinking I could pick one out this year from the warmth of my living room without actually going over there.
I checked out the roof on my shed tonight; it still has a lot of years on it. And my caged tulip trees are doing great; the deer don’t seem to be nibbling at the leaves escaping the cage. The bushes along the shed are browning up and I don’t know why. I really ought to cut down the invasive Russian Olive tree. These trees are difficult, if not impossible, to get rid of because they keep putting up “suckers”. It laughs at me when I brutally prune it. And it’s never produced an edible olive.