Take a Shot!

nn2601 Earl Plato
When did my conversion begin? Sometime in my early thirties I put aside my .410 shot gun and my .22 and took up hunting with cameras. I have never regretted that decision.
Before my change of attitude I used to hunt foxes in Abino Hills with father-in-law, Sid Kew. Sid was from western England, Bristol to be exact. He knew all about fox hunts. Sid was a great shot. Could I kill a fox even though I am a poor shot? That was the question. No. I decided way back then I would only hunt with a camera.
I had seen red foxes at Abino with Sid and we knew in the covered sandhills where their dens were. On those successive times we had not seen any. Not a shot was fired.
Sid had been on bush wolves drives in the Sherkston area many times with Alan Beach and his crew. They had been highly successful. Foxes are much smarter than bush wolves I was told.
Since those days I have seen foxes, mostly red. My most memorable sighting was in Marcy Woods. On the higher trail we had looked down to see a red vixen and four kits frolicking in the vale below. A beautiful sight.
Have you seen a red fox hunting? My writer mentor, Ed Teale, wrote this, “The first thing I see is a hunting fox, a red fox mousing among the grass clumps of Firefly Meadow. More than the gray, the red fox is abroad in daylight, ... frequently its colour almost matches the tawny hue of clumps of weathered grass. Over and over I see it pounce with the agility of a cat, forepaws held together - sometimes apparently with success.”
Writer’s note: Teale is screened by an old stone wall and watches the red fox with his field glasses. A fox is a wary animal so Teale is careful not to alert it. To you who visit in nature, secrecy and stealth , are needed to see certain animals and insects.
“When it comes to the wild apple tree that leans over the path, I watch it give a big leap up the slanting trunk trying to snap up a gray squirrel that shoots into the upper branches.”
Teale describes that red fox jump as a “kind of graceful wingover, a catlike upward bound - contact with the tree trunk, a quick turn, and the leap down again all in a sudden, graceful flow of movement.” Get the picture?
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It was years ago when local naturalist Rob Eberly called. “Want to go to Marcy Woods?” Doug Draper, Canadian free lance reporter, and Sharon, nature photographer for the Buffalo News, were our guests. Puddles of water adorned some of the low pockets on the trail into Marcy Woods. Time and time again the beautiful Red Admiral butterflies appeared. One eventually landed on Rob’s hand and posed for some of Sharon’s shots. Another bright glorious day in the Woods.
Doug wanted to see Marcy Woods first hand. For two plus hours we walked the trails down to the beach and back up again. We stopped at the famed cabin. Here Rob told the story of the Marcy legacy. Dr. George and Elizabeth Marcy wanted a legacy of preservation of this Carolinian gem. Rob had given Doug a number of studies of Marcy Woods by imminent scientists. The message was clear. Save the Woods for future generations of nature lovers, Canadian and American. Rob and I wait for Doug’s article. I am sure it will be a very good one.