pseudo-crepuscular
Going to work Wednesday morning (May 5), after I biked past the Providence Rec Center and headed into the last bit of woods before the office park, I saw
The squirrel was heading up a tree, but the fox was so intent on its prey that it took a moment to notice that it was heading straight for me! (Coasting bikes are pretty quiet.) It broke off its pursuit and vanished into the underbrush.
This was 10:12 AM (yeah, late for work again), but during my ride it had gone from being almost sunny to hinting at rain and darkening towards storminess. I think the false sense of twilight lured some of the wildlife out. This is a stream-valley park -- i.e. land that is too wet to encroach on further with buildings -- surrounded by highways, an office park (that's an oxymoron), apartments, houses, and schools, and all just inside the DC Beltway. There's something encouraging about seeing wildlife making a go of it, in spite of what we've done all around them.
On fall evenings I have sometimes seen deer in there. (It gets dark early and I have good lights on my bike.) And in the spring I have occasionally seen paired ducks in the creek -- but I never see any fish or other aquatic life, so I question the quality of the water. The (probably man-made) ponds in the office park attract geese, and that may be another incentive for foxes.
Going home Wednesday, about the time I needed to leave work, dark clouds rolled up, but passed on by without much effect. About half-way home, the pavement was wet, and it got wetter as I proceeded. The last couple of blocks the pavement was steaming, and when I got to my block, I found hail on the edges of the sidewalk. (I thought it was wind-blown flower petals at first, since the Azaleas are really going at it now.) In the yard it was everywhere, and there was a layer of it on the parts of the deck not covered by trees.
1/2" hailstones, thick enough to look like snow on the ground, and it was still 70º when I got there. I don't know how much had melted before I got home, or how big the hail was when it came down. (And the Azaleas did lose a lot of blossoms.)
- a rabbit (a little unusual), then rounding the bend in the trail,
- 2 squirrels (not unusual), then past the next twist,
- a squirrel being chased by a fox (Quite unusual!).
The squirrel was heading up a tree, but the fox was so intent on its prey that it took a moment to notice that it was heading straight for me! (Coasting bikes are pretty quiet.) It broke off its pursuit and vanished into the underbrush.
This was 10:12 AM (yeah, late for work again), but during my ride it had gone from being almost sunny to hinting at rain and darkening towards storminess. I think the false sense of twilight lured some of the wildlife out. This is a stream-valley park -- i.e. land that is too wet to encroach on further with buildings -- surrounded by highways, an office park (that's an oxymoron), apartments, houses, and schools, and all just inside the DC Beltway. There's something encouraging about seeing wildlife making a go of it, in spite of what we've done all around them.
On fall evenings I have sometimes seen deer in there. (It gets dark early and I have good lights on my bike.) And in the spring I have occasionally seen paired ducks in the creek -- but I never see any fish or other aquatic life, so I question the quality of the water. The (probably man-made) ponds in the office park attract geese, and that may be another incentive for foxes.
Going home Wednesday, about the time I needed to leave work, dark clouds rolled up, but passed on by without much effect. About half-way home, the pavement was wet, and it got wetter as I proceeded. The last couple of blocks the pavement was steaming, and when I got to my block, I found hail on the edges of the sidewalk. (I thought it was wind-blown flower petals at first, since the Azaleas are really going at it now.) In the yard it was everywhere, and there was a layer of it on the parts of the deck not covered by trees.
1/2" hailstones, thick enough to look like snow on the ground, and it was still 70º when I got there. I don't know how much had melted before I got home, or how big the hail was when it came down. (And the Azaleas did lose a lot of blossoms.)