Squirrel for Breakfast?

I mentioned that the red fox had once again become a daily visitor to Habitat. On Sunday, the fox came looking for breakfast, in the form of one of the gray squirrels. In the first of these four photos, you can see two squirrels eating sunflower seeds at the bottom of the birdfeeder while the fox (upper right hand corner) sits in his familiar observation seat. Now the fox’s position is about 6 feet lower in elevation (down a hill) than the squirrels, which puts the fox at somewhat of a disadvantage – he cannot always see the squirrels over the crest of this hill. Also, when the fox leaves the bush, he is very visible coming across the lawn.

The fox will sit and patiently wait until he believes he has an advantage. This patient waiting is where the fox got his label cunning, as in the cunning fox. Then, as you see in the second photo, he begins to lean forward and gently gets to the very front of the bush; all the while staying crouched as low as possible. And that fast he makes a dash up the hill, across the lawn, and at the closest squirrel.
On this particular occasion, the closest squirrel made it to and up the dogwood tree before the fox caught him. In the third photo, the fox is keeping a close eye on the squirrel, which with few leaves remaining on the dogwood is clearly visible to the fox. In the fourth photo, the fox looks over at me as if to say, “Do you believe that I missed this squirrel?”