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Sunday 14 June 2015

A streak of rust (Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore: Gray Fox)

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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

Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore: Gray Fox
 

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



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#ChaosReigns
: image via David Raposa @falsebinary, 29 November 2014




Urban Fox on the move
: photo by Ian Wade, 16 September 2010
 
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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

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Didn't expect to see this from breakfast table this morning #urbanfox
: image via Chuffed Productions @WeAreChuffed, 12 February 2015
 
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What a load of rubbish! #UrbanFox #photography #Glasgow #nature: image via James Moore @Mr_P_Marten, 5 September 2014
 
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Last one from me for the #WildLondoner hour. #urbanfox #canarywharf #london #urbanwildlife: image via jamie Hall @jamiehallphoto, 23 September 2014
 
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Ok, one more... #WildLondoner #urban #urbanwildlife #urbanfox: image via jamie Hall @jamiehallphoto, 23 September 2014


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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
 
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The perils of living in #London #UrbanFox #Clatter: image via SunburntEmily @sunburntemily, 25 October 2014 Wandsworth, London

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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 NP, AZ, November 7, 2012 | by Caleb Putnam
 
Gray Fox, Bright Angel Campground, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona: photo by Caleb Putnam, 7 November 2012

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/44/Fox_pan_de_azucar.JPG/1024px-Fox_pan_de_azucar.JPG
 
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 | by faungg's photos

Gray Fox: photo by faungg's photos, 19 October 2008
 
Gray Fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) | by Gregory "Slobirdr" Smith

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 | by cyclewidow

Gray Tree Fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus), Terlingua, Texas
: photo by cyclewidow, 13 April 2006


Gray Fox | by K Schneider  

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


#chaosreigns @emergency_fox
: image via Negative Nancy @LaurieFromMiami, 12 March 2014

6 comments:

Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore said...

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.

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
TC said...

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.

TC said...

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.

Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore said...

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!)

Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore said...

(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.)