(Red Fox- photo by Neil Barker)
Your senses tell you something large and unfamiliar is near.
Stop, do not move, look, listen, smell, wait to see what it does next.
You now recognize what it is that follows and do not move.
This is a Red Fox I was able to find with the help of some local American Crows. This was early in the morning in the summer of 2023 in a local conservation area where I hike on weekends. If I time my hikes just right, I can usually spot this Red Fox following a regular trail each morning.
The local crows also seem to know the routine of this Red Fox and will follow it from above. The crows will split up and sit in trees along the trail and caw loudly letting everything nearby know a Red Fox is out and about. I imagine the Red Fox may be returning from a night of hunting on its way back to a den site.
The Red Fox and I stood looking at each for about 2 minutes while I was taking this photo. The crows continued cawing loudly in several trees nearby. I remember making an adjustment on my camera and the Red Fox turned and trotted off into some thick hedges.
Sijo Notes: I wrote this sijo from the perspective of the Red Fox. It tried to capture the Red Fox’s thinking and senses of me standing here taking this photo. This fox likely smelled and heard me well before it was able to see me. Now thinking back, I wonder now if the crows cawing nearby were tipping off both me and the fox of each other’s presence. Perhaps the crows were cawing to let me know the fox was nearby as well as letting the fox know I was too. Interesting.
Red Fox Notes:
…is probably more numerous in North America now than when Europeans began to arrive in the 16th century.