Friday, July 25, 2008

Babies!

Just so you "Fancy Photographer types" don't get to thinking that you have captured the corner on cute, take a look at these photos. Brian Sargent, the manager at RadioShack took these photos with a 3.2 megapixel Canon shirt pocket camera. He was in the Briceland area when he saw four of these little guys romping around and playing in the loose straw. He said that they were really full of themselves, jumping around and biting each other and having a great time. He only had time to take these two pictures and they were gone, off into the brush with their mom.

Baby Foxes

It has been a good year for babies. Last year had abundant fruit, berries, and nuts, and the wildlife did great last winter. They came into the spring fat and fertile.

Two years ago I saw a ground squirrel in the berry brush by the golf course. This year I have seen as many as ten little baby squirrels laying on their fat little bellies and eating fresh green clover on the golf course.

Every couple of quail that I see has babies trailing behind them. There was at least seventy-five baby quail in front of my house the other day.

One of the things that I enjoy the most is the small glimpses that I get of the baby cottontail rabbits that live in the brush around my house. They come hopping out of the brush, but when they get spooked, it is almost like a cartoon. Their hind feet get going first then their bodies catch up with them. They jump in the air and kick like they were kicking the imaginary predator that was chasing them in the nose. In the blink of an eye they are back in their beloved bramble patch.

There are baby turkeys all over the valley.

Last year the doe that lives in front of my house had twin fawns. This year those fawns are twin spike yearlings. There is another set of twin fawns this year, I not sure if it is the same doe, but they are all in the same group.

Last year was the year of the amazing fruit, this year will be the year of the amazing babies.

18 comments:

Robin Shelley said...

Cute, cute, CUTE pictures, Ernie! How lucky for the R.S. guy to have seen these little foxes.
It's a lousey year for berries, I know that. Do you suppose there's any connection? Nah!

Kym said...

They're adorable! My little guy and I are cooing over them.

Rose said...

Awww, man! I wanna take one home!

Ernie Branscomb said...

I knew a person in Laytonville that had a pet fox back in the fifties. I never got to see it, but I understand that he used to let it loose in the house.

Robin Shelley said...

As someone who has been soundly trounced by a "pet buck" that belonged to the resident deputy sheriff in Laytonville many years ago, I maintain that it is NEVER a good idea to make a pet out of a wild animal.

Anonymous said...

My folks knew of a couple up in the hills in Trinity County who had a pet fox that would climb their curtains like a cat. They too, had found it as a kit.

I had the rare experience of seeing a pair of twin mountain lion cubs walking across a cut block back in the late '70's.

Robin Shelley said...

Man! I wish I'd seen the lions, Eko. That must have been a thrill!

Anonymous said...

Cute little fur balls.

Anonymous said...

Ernie, does your counter add a number when "you" log on?

Oregon

Carol said...

My daughter and I love the pictures! Thank you!

Ernie Branscomb said...

Oregon. Yep, The counter counts every time anyone comes into ernie.blogspot.com. You can come in and stay all day and it only counts you once, but if you check my blog thirty times a day it will add thirty "hits".

I first added the counter because people were coming to my blog and reading without making a comment, so I didn't know if people were reading the blog or not. Some of my favorite blogs to read are some that I seldom comment on, so I put it on to see if maybe the same thing was happening to me. I’m not sure what it tells me, but it’s fun to watch it move. Some of us bloggers are easily entertained!

Ernie Branscomb said...

Did you know that a Grey fox will climb a tree, steal eggs out of bird nests and take naps in hawks nests?

Here’s one of the more interesting things that I have been able to find out about our local critter, “the Grey Fox”. Interestingly it is by “The National Trappers Association”

Anonymous said...

I used to trap fox in So. Humb. and made good money at it. They like apples so slices of apple worked good for bait and it helped keep the skunks out of a set.

Oregon

Anonymous said...

Why did apples keep the skunks away from the traps?

Ernie Branscomb said...

City Girls!!! Skunks eat bugs and and dead things, but only eat vegetables when they are starving.

Oregon, don't talk about things like that! The people that live here now don't know that makeing a living off the land was a tradition before they came along...

Hey wait a minute...

Anonymous said...

Sorry about that. I seem to stir up a hornets nest every time I write.

Oregon

Rose said...

I had a pet porcupine when I was a kid. Raised it with a baby bottle. It thought I was its Mom. They only put up their quills when they are threatened.

Joel Mielke said...

Dammit, you leave me with no choice. Okay, here goes:
Awwww, they're soooooo cute!

They really are an unusual sight.