A robin red-breast hopped across my patio. It pecked at a short, skinny twig, picked it up in its beak, then dropped it. Did the bird think the twig was a worm? I haven’t seen many robins in my back yard, so this was an exotic experience.
But I had an even more exotic experience at the cemetery today. A long skinny animal trotted dog-like across the sidewalk. But it was no dog. Its red fur, pointy ears and luxuriant tail made it a red fox. The fox skittered away from my walking buddy and me, heading into the gully. But after we retreated, it came back up and dug near a gravesite. My buddy thought the fox was burying something. Could it have learned an un-foxy habit from the squirrels who romp through the grounds?
A noise made me look up, and there was my third red-tinged animal of the day: a hawk.