Foxes and Flowers

Yesterday my order of organic bird seed arrived while I was sleeping off a migraine. That afternoon I eagerly tossed handfuls of seed beneath the evergreen tree outside my window. It’s been rather cold around here, and I figured it was high time I start doing my share to give back to the local wildlife.

I was hoping not only to help the birds through the cold spell, but also to improve my chances of getting some pictures. As I’ve mentioned before, the birds around here are plentiful and beautiful! This morning, upon awakening, I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, fed the dogs, put on my glasses, and went to sit down by the window and wait to see who came for the feast.

As I looked at the seed on the ground below, I noticed that many of the peanuts (which are a part of one of the bird seed mixes) had already been cracked open. Assuming the squirrels had arrived first, I began to scan the ground for grey fluffy tails. About two seconds later, a beautiful, black-eared, golden-red fox strolled over, and proceeded to happily make breakfast out of the seeds and nuts!

It was the most amazing sight! I’ve seen foxes from a distance trotting around the farm, but this was as close as I’ve ever gotten to a fox. I happily observed her/him for a good fifteen minutes munching away at the sunflower seeds. The fox was obviously picking out the good ones, and seemed much happier with some of the smaller seeds as opposed to the peanuts.

After the fox went on its way, I went out to look around a little, and found the flowers you see in the above picture just beyond the tree. I believe that these are called snowdrops. Having bloomed only in the last day, they have managed to precede the crocus who have been diligently swelling for weeks now. I know that those croci are going to open sometime soon… perhaps this week?