Dipper Ranch: Persimmon

Showing posts with label Persimmon. Show all posts

Monday, January 23, 2017

Fox Pups in Trees

Gray fox pup climbing a plum tree

Every kitchen sink needs a view of nature. My kitchen sink looks out over a birdbath, the orchard, and the skirt of Lupine Hill. In June while doing dishes, I heard a familiar plop outside and reprimanded myself for not harvesting the plums sooner. The fruit trees in the orchard are so old, they only bloom in earnest once or twice a decade. Last spring was one of those lucky years when the fifty-something plum tree cloaked its gnarled branches with bright blossoms and buzzing insects for a few pink days. Before I could climb the slope in summer and set the heavy ladder between its tangle of unpruned branches, the fruits were darkening to purple and dropping.

As I rinsed a mug, I noticed a single branch in the plum tree shaking wildly. Something fuzzy and gray was moving down its length. A sharp snout poked out of the green leaves and pulled down a plum. It was a gray fox pup 8 feet up in the tree. The backside of the tree was shaking with another fox pup and no adult fox was in sight. What other animal can go from nursing and clumsy puppy battles to climbing trees in less than a month? The fox pups were bigger and more agile than our first views of them stumbling around the garage in May, but I never imagined them jumping up and climbing trees so soon.

Flying Foxes

With short legs, flexible forearms, and recurved claws, gray foxes readily climb trees.

What is the "fantastic fossorial fellow according to Roald Dahl" and the final flying visitor to the Dipper Ranch persimmon tree in 2013? None but Fantastic Mr. Fox, or specifically at the Dipper Ranch, the spirited, leaping and tree climbing common gray fox.

A Persimmon in Every Pot - the Woodpeckers

Female hairy woodpecker showing a black back with a white blaze down the middle and white checkering on her black wing feathers.
09/28/13

The sapsuckers were the flashiest woodpeckers at the persimmon tree this fall. But there were several other woodpeckers that made appearances on the ripe glowing fruit and they challenged me to finally learn the difference between the hairy and downy woodpeckers. Well, at least the hairy part.

A Persimmon in Every Pot - the Sapsuckers

An agile red-breasted sapsucker feasts on a ripe persimmon.
11/10/2013

Everybody likes the persimmon tree in the backyard in the fall. I've written about deer and coyotes picking up fallen fruit beneath the tree, and a raccoon family climbing its branches to feast, but this fall the tree's flying visitors caught my attention. And not all those flying visitors were birds.

Fall at the Horse Meadow

When the days got short and the nights crisp, the animals came to the horse meadow. Mostly they came to eat the persimmons off the tree. Long retired to the meadow, the horse shared his only tree because he wanted to watch the visitors.

The raccoons came at night. Once when it was raining, they came during the day as if the raindrops hid their bandit ways. The mama raccoon led the parade with her back rolling up

December Orange

I am seeing wintry oranges everywhere.

A banana slug slimes across redwood leaf litter on the forest floor.

The dogwood trees turn red, yellow and orange. When the leaves blow off, the deep red stems are featured.

A California towhee shows off its orange tush while eating a hanging persimmon.

California towhees are plain at first glance,
but they have a delightful necklace of black dots.

A trio of American robins. Their breasts don't glow as bright as the persimmons, but once you notice their white eye ring, it stands out like the sought-after pattern on a puzzle piece.

Flocks of modestly colored cedar waxwings can be spotted against the winter sky by the narrow, bright yellow band at the tip of their tails. Perching, you notice their small crest, pale yellow belly, and maybe a red or orangish tip to their secondary feathers caused by their fruit-heavy diet (sometimes described as waxy drops or modifications of the feather shaft which may influence their breeding choices).

The small cedar waxwings wait in the walnut tree for their turn at the persimmons.

Other birds that are feeding on the persimmons are ravens, stellar jays and yellow-rumped warblers, starlings, red-breasted sapsucker, downy woodpecker . While birding in bed the other morning, I saw a red-shafted flicker reach for a dripping glob of persimmon jelly, and incidentally show off his red mustache, orangish eye shadow and the apricot-red of the underside of his tail feathers.

The persimmons fill up the living room.

A brown and orange coast range newt crosses a road under stormy skies.

Some newts don't make it across the road.

Newts move slowly. They follow the same pathways to water each winter for breeding. When the second big storm of the year arrives, look sharp and notice where the newts cross the country roads. On those sections, slow down enough to check the road surface and straddle the newts with your car wheels.

A maple leaf mimics a newt in threat pose as a car approaches.

Orange in the summer is too bright. Orange in the winter is warm and cheerful in a content sorta way. A base of life turning over. Some people have a hard time with the short days in winter - SAD, seasonal affective disorder. Their brains produce more of the hormone melatonin during the longer hours of darkness, and depression, anxiety, hopelessness and oversleeping may set in. Sitting under a certain type of light, phototherapy, might help.

I do okay with the short days if I get up early and am outside or near a window to see the winter sun rise, or if I get a gulp of moonlit night air. I witness the seasonal patterns in my skin and lungs and have winter orange hope and anticipation for longer days.