The Fox and the Pheasant

By Holly Gordon
Bay Shore, Long Island, New York

It’s neither the robin nor the crocus that signals spring in my garden. It’s the arrival of fox and pheasant….isn’t that pleasant!

I do nothing to bait them. Like magic, they just appear. Three years ago I first noticed the vivid plumage of an audacious bird with a comical call, foraging in my back yard. I immediately ran for my camera…and then for the bird book. My personal mantra is ‘shoot’ first. Ask questions later! Lo and behold, thirty minutes, or, a roll of film later, I identified that Ring-Necked Pheasant, Phasianus colchicus, were perambulating on my property.

Day after day these glorious creatures returned. Their cuck-cuck crowing sound alerted me of their presence. They often traveled in pairs and frequented my garden so regularly that I kept my camera loaded and ready. Ring-Necked Pheasant have become tolerant of humans but not habituated…thank goodness.

It wasn’t until they reemerged, this year, that I began considering the possibility that this might become an ‘annual event’. I do hope so!

Last summer I discovered, quite by accident, that two kits (baby red fox) were cavorting on my pool deck! A little detective work proved that they were residents, not visitors! Dislodged mounds of soil and mulch created a number of entrances and exits to their den, under my deck, where they lived with their mother.

I am an avid gardener, as well as a nature-lover and photographer… but this opportunity to observe and photograph them superseded any irritation that they were digging up my beds and trampling my flowers. Candytuft became a favorite place for them to sit!

Throughout the summer they appeared as regularly as evening sit-com reruns. Dusk, cloudy and rainy conditions were prime times for them to display their antics. Eventually, they grew up and vanished from my sight…but I knew they returned to my garden during the winter because the recurring snowfalls helped identify their footprints. I never caught sight of them until…

…one utterly bleak and rainy Saturday morning, a month ago. I looked out of my bedroom window and groaned at dreary view. A new baby fox on my deck caught my eye and the day, suddenly, became ‘brighter’! I put on my fleece to combat the cold damp temperature, cranked open the bedroom windows, positioned my camera, and shot my heart out!

Little red foxes are so mischievous and curious. They don’t yet realize that they are nocturnal creatures and are supposed to sleep during the daytime! The fox is Long Island’s largest mammal predator (discounting man), and the red fox much more colorful of skin and personality than the shy and secretive gray fox.

On this same rainy day, no sooner did that baby fox disappear than two pheasants emerged in my yard scratching for food, crowing their squawk and flapping their wings. ‘Mother Nature’ continued to brighten my day with her magic: Act 2, The Return of the Ring-Necked Pheasant!

I haven’t seen the fox or the pheasant since…but I know they’ll return.

...from the journals of Holly Gordon

More information: www.hollygordonphotographer.com

Photos and writing on this page: Holly Gordon
Contact Holly by email: holly@hollygordonphotographer.com