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November 22, 2001 - The focus is on the foxThe Suffolk Times • November 22, 2001 The focus is nth BARBARA AND I ARE NOT always early risers. We sometimes get up around 7 o'clock. Usually the first thing Barbara does is to open the cur- tains. Well, this morning she added, "Come look! Come quick! Come look!" I didn't know what she was all excited Focus about until I got ON to the window, and there was a NATURE fox, with its by Paul long bushy tail, Stoutenbulgh heading across the lawn. It ducked under the fence and out onto the pasture. Evidently it had finished its nightly rounds and was heading back to its den area. It's thought that foxes roam an area of about one square mile for their food. This terri- tory is marked by urine and feces that tells all other foxes, "Keep out!" X You can count yourself lucky if you spot a fox and you can count yourself doubly lucky if you find a fox den. There's nothing quite like watching a family of young foxes romp and play around the entrance to the den. Times /Review photo by Paul Stoutenburgh roxes usuany aon t sleep in tneir dens but sleep in the open, all curled up. They usually mate in February or March and have four to five young. By now, the young are almost fully grown and as winter approaches, they'll move out and be on their own, It was good that I hadn't gotten up earlier and let the chickens out, oth- erwise Mr. Fox would have had his breakfast right in my back yard. Foxes usually bond for life. Both male and female feed -the young. When you find a den, the first thing you notice is the pile of dirt in front of it, where the fox has dug. There are usually signs of what the oppor- tunist parents have brought in around the entrance of the den: wings of birds, legs of rabbits, etc. These trophies are what the young foxes, or kits, play with. They have endless energy for tumbling, jumping and nipping at each other, all of which sets them up for hunting later on. The young as well as the adults will eat almost anything, from rabbits to snakes to insects to fruit. And as I said before, "perhaps my chickens." Through the years we've lost many a chicken-to a fox. We've always had chickens, so we try to be careful about when we let them out. - The fruit grower enjoys foxes, for during the winter mice will gnaw around the bases of their fruit trees, enjoying the nutritious bark. Hopefully the fox will get rid of the mice, which can do tremendous dam- age. In early colonial times the only fox was the gray fox. This fox is especial- ly equipped with sharp, pointed toes that let him actually climb trees. It's a product of the deep forest that the colonial people found when they landed. Then, as they cleared the land and created farms, pastures and homesteads, they made an ideal habi- tat for the red fox. Now there would be mice, meadow voles, small birds, etc., and so the red fox, which is not always red but sometimes black or silvery, replaced the climbing gray fox. As the country became more set- tled and prosperous, the wealthy brought with them the tradition of the fox hunt, but they found that the gray fox could climb a tree and there was not sport in just chasing a fox up a tree. What they were looking for was the hunt across the fields and over the stone walls like they had in the old country. To remedy the situa- tion, they actually imported red foxes and let them go in hopes of establishing them permanently in their countryside. Little did they know that we already had a red fox of our own, but it was found only in the more open areas. Even today there are people who don't realize that we have red foxes around. You can count yourself quite lucky if you see one, as we did. Yet there are others who have called to tell me about a fox den under their toolshed, while others told of a den in- their back lot. All said how much joy they had watching the adults come and go. Then later they told of being entertained as the young foxes cavorted about in front of their den. Dogs and man are the fox's only enemies. Some still think the only good fox is a dead fox. Occasionally foxes will find themselves falling to diseases such as distemper, man e o rabies. There's many a tale about how a clever fox has outsmarted the hunter. A fox often doubles back on its trail, then sidesteps and goes the opposite way. There are stories about a fox that would run in a stream or along a bay- or creekfront to confuse the baying dogs. Often they'll jump up on stone walls and run along their full length — anything to discourage the dogs that yap behind them, now in com- plete confusion. We were so excited about seeing the fox in our back yard, but proba- bly not half as excited as the lady who called to tell me about the view from her window. It was a peacock that she got to see. How it got to Cutchogue no one knows, but I'm sure it was someone's domesticated peacock that got away or was just let go. We have heard from time to time about other peacocks, particularly in the Greenport area. -The common peacock is a native of Burma, India and the Malay Peninsula. In Burma it is so revered by the populace that the coins have peacocks on them. It's easily domesti- cated and often the eggs of the pea- cock are put under a chicken to raise. It is believed that the Romans intro- duced the peacock to Great Britain ana, or course, later on to Europe as well. It was never a bird of food value but merely one that was used to decorate one's garden or estate. In the wild, peacocks are known to eat grain, seeds, snakes and insects; just about the same diet as a chicken. I'm told that peacocks are unfriendly to domesticated birds such as chick- ens, so it looks like I won't be seeing any peacocks in my back yard. We went over to the lady's house and saw this peacock. It is a stately bird with beautiful deep -blue color- ing and a walk like a pompous king. Rarely does it move fast. This pea- cock did not have the long, beautiful feathers that we associate with pea- cocks when they are displaying, but rather, as happens each year, it was molting and the long feathers had been discarded. The peacock belongs to the family of quail, grouse and pheasants. The pheasants, of course, can be very beautiful and use their colors in display just as the pea- cock does. There is nothing quite like the sight of a peacock when he puts his fan of feathers up and shimmies and shakes in the hopes of impress- ing some pea hen. In the wild, peacocks, or pea fowl, roost in trees just like turkeys and, like turkeys, they travel in groups. It is during the time when they enter the roost at night and come down again in the morning from the roost that they bellow a rather unpleasant sound like a trumpet. Once you've heard it, you'll never forget it. So this week was a kind of interest- ing one, what with the fox running across our lawn and the peacock in the lady's back yard. Keep an eye out, as you never know what you might see right in your own back yard. I'll close with this little saying from an old -time reference to pea- cocks. It's forecast of sorts: "When the peacock loudly bawls Soon we'll have both rain and __11_ 99 There is nothing quite like the sight of a peacock when he puts his fan of feathers up...