Fox Lessons
When I first started going to my sit spot about 8 years ago, I had no idea that I would see a fox in the city. I actually had no idea what I’d see or learn from this experience. However, I wanted to learn more about nature and this was part of the Kamana Naturalist Training Program from Wilderness Awareness School… So I choose a spot right across the street in a wooded area for were I lived. I searched the area and found a good spot to sit.
Following the routines in the Kamana Program I started to learn and explore the area around my sit spot. I started tracking in a few areas that had good sandy soil. To my surprise I found really small dog tracks and scat. At first I thought it was one of the neighborhood dogs, but the scat was different. It had hair and berry seeds in it. I was pretty sure that it might be a Gray Fox. However, what would a Gray Fox be doing here in the city? Where would it live? How could it survive?
I finally got a glimpse of the Gray Fox when I was coming home late one night. It was incredible, at first I just couldn’t believe what I had seen. However it was good to know that the tracks and scat I was looking at proved to be Gray Fox. It would take me several weeks of going out and sitting at my spot before I would see the Fox in the woods. I was always able to find some tracks, or scat that told me the Fox had been through. I still had many questions and no answers. I learned later on that having more questions than answers was part of being a tracker and a naturalist.
My first sighting came late evening. I was heading out to my spot when I heard a noise and spotted the tail of the Fox heading into the bushes and disappearing down the hedgerow. I felt I was finally getting closer to seeing the Fox it was exciting to know that an animal like that was living here in the city. It opened my eyes to realizing that nature is all around us and will find a way to survive and live if given the chance. I was starting to feel a shift in the way I felt about living in the city and about how I felt about the Earth.
Then it happened. My first real good sighting of the Fox. It was Early one morning in the fall .I was heading out to my spot early before dawn. I wanted to be at my spot before the dawn chorus started. I was fox walking out to my spot when I had a gut feeling that I should sit down. I slowly started to kneel down and wanted to try and get my eyes really working in wide angle vision. That’s when I spotted three small black objects about 30 feet away from me. I couldn’t quite make out what they were, but deicide that sitting down, even though I wasn’t at my sit spot, and I was out in the open was a good idea.
I was sitting still and maintaining my wide angle vision. The back objects were slowly moving closer to me, but were about 30 feet away. As the sun started to come up I heard the birds start to sing and the noticed that the black objects were really a female Stripped Skunk and two young. I watched them as they got within 20 feet of me. They were digging up grubs as they slowly moved across the field. They didn’t care that I was there.
It was actually very cool to watch them and be so close. By this time the sun was up and I could see better.
I saw some move out of the corner of my eye. It was standing around the edge of the hedgerow, out in the open. I saw the Gray Fox, it standing about 35 to 40 feet away from me and looking directly at the skunks. It was incredible. I remember thinking, you don’t want these skunks to eat…it might not be good. My heart was racing as I watched the Fox. It was an awesome sight. I had seen a Gray Fox right in the middle of the city.
The Fox stood there looking around, smelling the air and listening to everything. It finally decided that the skunks weren’t worth the trouble and some strange two legged human was watching him. The Fox turned and disappeared into the hedges without a sound.
Little did I know then, the impact that this little Fox would have on my life.