Some kits keep you up all day long

Several days before, I’d seen this gentle, solicitous sow
transport a newborn kit by mouth from one tree cavity to another.

Then one day a high lonesome cry filled the air,
answered only by a soothing reply, encouraging the youth to venture forth
on trunk and limb, which it did, eventually, with trepidation and a helping paw…

 leaving them both exhausted and ready for a long afternoon nap

 in the shelter of their leafy home.

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Bonus Material: Behind the Scenes …

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Quietly …

slumbering

spring

wakes

from the leaf bed.

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By yard and stream

Here by the autumn creekside,

a stealthy fox emerges from cover

to prey upon a squirrel

 that nimbly leaps away.

And here the next morning, back set to the sun, the fox bends to it again.

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Summer felt

Here’s how it looks

to reason with the bucks

about eating from a garden.

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Waiting on a friend

 One might never tire of watching a woodchuck waddle away,

but it’s a special thrill to sit upon its path some inviting spring morning

when it might come curiously close,

as if face to face with an old friend,

returning along its well-worn way. 

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Tree of life

Thanks to spring blooms that fed the bees
that pollinated the flowers that produced fall’s fruit,
a gray squirrel dangles from hind legs, to pluck a ripe crabapple, 
and nibble the food in its paws on a nearby branch.

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Another summer’s fawn

On the slim margin of Little Crum Creek, few moments, though tender, can be private.

Like last year’s fawn, this summer’s newborn deer waits patiently on a hill under maple shade and weed, occasionally roaming to browse, until momma returns for a suckle and nuzzle in the surrounding sound of cicada songs.

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