A streak of rust on deserted stairs caught my eye whilst heading home last night. #urbanfox: image via Sophie Darlington @S_Darlington, 6 April 2014 Hackney, London
for Tom Clark
A gray fox this time
with black nose
slips almost unnoticed
along the city street
next to the great woods
and most think he’s a
neighborhood cat out for a
serendipitous stroll
a few sardine cans whose
oils may not be completely
ingested
He’s slick in the
full moonlight
as if wearing ermines
the light off his
gray coat shines
and he’s thinking foxy
thoughts pretty
unfathomable to such as
us with our limited though
technologically supported
communication skills
The fox who yips and
barks at night so
neighbors think it’s a
dog fight or a
tomcat commotion
bouncing along
nose choosing from the
menu of odors we can’t
even smell
Stops
pricks up his ears for a
moment
stock still
momentarily majestic
then ambles on
as much in God’s
sight as we are only
O so much more
naturally glamorous!
5/12/15
#ChaosReigns: image via David Raposa @falsebinary, 29 November 2014
Urban Fox on the move: photo by Ian Wade, 16 September 2010
Great working with you yesterday @heidi_delve. Well, I say just you, but inspiration came from all around... #urbanfox: image via Michael Warley @MichaeWarley, 9 April 2014
Didn't expect to see this from breakfast table this morning #urbanfox: image via Chuffed Productions @WeAreChuffed, 12 February 2015
What a load of rubbish! #UrbanFox #photography #Glasgow #nature: image via James Moore @Mr_P_Marten, 5 September 2014
Last one from me for the #WildLondoner hour. #urbanfox #canarywharf #london #urbanwildlife: image via jamie Hall @jamiehallphoto, 23 September 2014
Ok, one more... #WildLondoner #urban #urbanwildlife #urbanfox: image via jamie Hall @jamiehallphoto, 23 September 2014
But sure you've loads of space to drive around me! #fox #car #urbanfox #london: image via Nessy @Nessymon, 18 October 2014
RIP #urbanfox this morning by side of road north london: image via Ana Sanchez-Martin @AnaGerminate, 26 February 2015
Urban Fox, Bristol: photo by Ian Wade, 18 July 2011
Urban Fox, Bristol: photo by Ian Wade, 18 July 2011
Urban Fox, Bristol: photo by Ian Wade, 18 July 2011
Urban Foxes, Bristol: photo by Ian Wade, 18 July 2011
Urban Foxes, Bristol: photo by Ian Wade, 18 July 2011
Urban Fox, South Bristol: photo by Ian Wade, 23 July 2011
The perils of living in #London #UrbanFox #Clatter: image via SunburntEmily @sunburntemily, 25 October 2014 Wandsworth, London
Urban Fox at #KewGardens, stayed about 30 minutes then ran off with @smit_edward's iPhone. #kew #urbanfox: image via Oli Broadhead @OliBroadhead, 6 August 2014
Father and Son, Urban Foxes, Bristol: photo by Ian Wade, 26 September 2010
Urban Fox cub, Bristol: photo by Ian Wade, 7 October 2010
Young Urban Fox relaxing in street, Bristol: photo by Ian Wade, 7 October 2010
Young Urban Fox relaxing in Cotham Bristol: photo by Ian Wade, 16 October 2010
Young Urban Fox cleaning in street, Bristol: photo by Ian Wade, 16 October 2010
Young Urban Fox cleaning in street, Bristol: photo by Ian Wade, 16 October 2010
Urban Fox with mange, Bristol. I enjoyed spending last night looking for suitable locations with Secret world rescue centre in Somerset to set up a cage to trap an urban fox with bad mange. Hopefully the cage will work and we can save this beautiful fox! This fox has featured in many of my photos over the months. He was once a beautiful male fox and now is in a terrible state. I have become very attached to Freddy as many other people have in the location. Hopefully we can catch him this week and save his life! Fingers crossed: photo by Ian Wade, 6 February 2011
Urban Fox, Bristol: photo by Ian Wade, 26 April 2013
Gray Fox, Bright Angel Campground, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona: photo by Caleb Putnam, 7 November 2012
A chilla (Lycalopex griseus) -- South American Gray Fox, or Zorro, in Pan de Azúcar National Park on the coast of the Atacama Desert, Chile: photo by Alejandro Torres Frías, 2008
Gray Fox: photo by faungg's photos, 19 October 2008
Gray Fox: photo by faungg's photos, 19 October 2008
Gray Fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus), sometimes called the arboreal fox. You will find this common west coast species at home climbing trees as well as on the ground...: photo by Gregory "Slobirdr" Smith. 28 April 2014
Gray Tree Fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus), Terlingua, Texas: photo by cyclewidow, 13 April 2006
Gray Fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus), Paseo Padre Parkway, just south of Coyote Hills Regional Park, Alameda County, California - 23 February 2011. I found this unfortunate fox on the side of the road this morning, just before sunrise. The black guard hairs that run the length of the dorsal surface of the body are well seen here. I entered the observation into the California Roadkill Observation System: photo by K Schneider, 22 February 2011
6 comments:
Lovely sweet Tom. I changed "such as us" to "such as we" and took off the exclamation point at the end. If you think that wise, and can, do, if not, well, leave as is. The photos are so searing... witnesses as we are to dire straits. Thanks.
Many thanks Abdal-Hayy and Tisa.
Abdal-Hayy, as to the text, the committee of experts has now respectfully sat upon the matter (hopefully without crushing), and unanimously adjudged the entry entirely adequate as is.
As to the photos, obviously the gray foxes are outnumbered here by their red cousins, but as Abdal-Hayy's fox patrols the wild-urban interface, it seemed any fox dogged enough to work that fraught territory could be thought to have in common with any other fox working the same hinterland at least that one thing, the being at the fringe of, and in the way of, civilization -- the lurking vagrancy, the insolent disregard for clear and present danger ever at hand.
On that latter note, the danger, there are those on the committee who abhor the sight of dead animals under any circumstance; the voting on this issue always swings back and forth; today's two dead foxes are seen in the interests of truth in reporting, they're fairly representative, sadly.
The best look one gets at a wild animals any more, here on the freeway feeder, is usually the awful sight of road kill. What with the driest year ever, and no water in the hills, the deer have stayed down here in order to survive, and it's a world of risk for them. This morning, a mature and largely pregnant doe, hit and killed on the road, lay aslant, her body thrown to the side, still warm and wet with the marks, as the scavenging crows began the next part of the deconstruction job, busily pecking out the great staring eyes while dodging traffic.
Mmmm... groan... there now come directives from the endarkened outer rows of the peanut gallery concerning our perceived liberties with the such as us/such as we crux... a trouble patch familiar to all haunters of English/American usage, with the locus classicus being the debate over John Simon's views on the correctness (or lack of same) of the grammar of The Whiffenpoof Song... but before getting too deep into that debate (not that it isn't intoxicating) here are the two truths which we hold to be self evident, on this issue:
1. Both "such as us" and "such as we" have proponents, with the former usage generally accorded precedence (habitual custom of the language as used); and
2. neither our committee of experts, nor the peanut gallery volunteers, nor the OED, nor Fowler nor other body is familiar with the labyrinthine workings of the boiler room of the ark of the covenant sunk deep beneath the blogger dashboard, so let me just hint that, once a post has struggled to be born from these nether regions, its fate is to live, and any attempt by me, or for that matter anyone, to fool with it, has approximately the same effect that greeted Fibber McGee, when he opened the door of the hall closet.
Hmmm... the web can of Pandoric worms have wriggled out of the their lingual box it seems... (I'm still laughing over "the labyrinthine workings of the boiler room of the ark of the covenant sunk deep beneath the blogger dashboard"... you might make that the title of your next book! it should go into the Bartletts for sure... does ANYONE but us or we consult these tattered tomes anymore?)
I wasn't expecting my note to you to be posted, but in fact changing it from "us" to "we" just sounded better to me, and there was almost a kind of Judy Holiday comic wrong-rightness about it in my ear... ah well, back to mama Rabbit (I've been saying this lately, to no great consequence...)
By the way, Maestro, we know where you get your poems, but where do you get your great gallery hordes of photos? (Keep your secret!)
(Also "such as we" to me has a stronger arrogance proprietary ring to it... kind of blowing our clenched fingers and rubbing them onto our chest in pride thingy.)
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