There’s no need to bark at me
Never mind what I was doing out picking peas at one in the morning. We eat late, and peas are best cooked as soon as possible after picking, m’kay? So anyhow, I was out back under a full moon last night with a flashlight snugged in my armpit, filling a sack with peas, when I heard the most amazing…well, this:
[audio:fox_territory_call.mp3]
I snagged that audio from this defunct Angelfire site and then bent the pitch down a little, but it still doesn’t match exactly what I heard. That shit was spooky.
I swung the flashlight up and caught a pair of green eyes about a hundred feet away in the fallow field behind the house. Okay, but here’s the thing — that’s when the son of a bitch started running toward me. That’s the side of the house with the wide drainage ditch, or I seriously think I’d have made a puddle.
Fox. It must not have known how to process a flashlight beam and assumed a little weasel-scaring aggression was called for. It kept barking until I went to get Uncle B, but it was gone by the time we got back.
Oh, well. There is some comfort knowing there really aren’t all that many big mammals in the UK, and none of them are rabid.
The field on the front side of the house is full of a half dozen of our neighbor’s rams most of the time. And dozens of runnybabbits. I love to go out with a flashlight on dark nights and shine it into that field. The whole thing lights up with little red hoppity-hoppity bunny-glow eyes and slow, solemn green sheep eyes. Verily, it is an hoot.
It always reminds me of the condom scene from Skin Deep.
I know, I know. Way to step on my own mood.
Posted: August 4th, 2009 under animals, personal.
Comments: 22
Comments
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: August 4, 2009, 8:01 pm
If you’ve never seen Skin Deep, DO click the link. The funny is at the very end (they really should have trimmed off the first half).
Comment from Uncle Badger
Time: August 4, 2009, 8:11 pm
She means the first half of the movie clip.
I think.
Comment from Richard
Time: August 4, 2009, 8:31 pm
That sounds cool.
Is the photo yours? If so do you mind if I ask how you took it, as I have recently been experimenting with night-time photography.
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: August 4, 2009, 8:44 pm
Yes, thanks. I did actually take that last night. I popped off three shots totally handheld, standing in the garden just at dusk. Not even a wall to brace against. That’s not how good I am, that’s how fucking unbeLIEVable my Nikon D40 is.
Actually, it didn’t convert to black and white all that well. Here it is in color:
I adore that camera. I hate using flash and I like shooting in low light. The D40 is brilliant for that.
Comment from Nicole
Time: August 4, 2009, 10:56 pm
I would have puddled. No doubt about it. I can get spooked pretty easily. I had never heard a fox, though. Sounds almost like a large crow or something. Great picture. My moon pictures always look like a picture of a white spot.
Comment from MCPO Airdale
Time: August 4, 2009, 11:00 pm
Heavenly shades of night are falling
It’s twilight time
Out of the mist your voice is calling
It’s twilight time
When purple colored curtains
Mark the end of the day
I hear you my dear at twilight time
Comment from surly ermine
Time: August 4, 2009, 11:31 pm
Foxes are crazy sounding bastards. We had a whole family of them chattering away one nite just outside the downstairs bedroom window. Sounded like a pack of monkeys. Weird it was.
Comment from iamfelix
Time: August 5, 2009, 12:22 am
When the deep purple falls over sleepy garden walls
And the stars begin to twinkle in the sky—
In the mist of a memory, you wander back to me
Breathing my name with a sigh…
Deep Purple, lyric by the great Mitchell Parish.
Parish/Wiki: His best known works include the lyrics to songs such as “Star Dust”, “Sweet Lorraine”, “Deep Purple”, “Stars Fell on Alabama”, “Sophisticated Lady”, “Volare” (English lyrics), “Moonlight Serenade”, “Sleigh Ride”, “One Morning in May”, and “Louisiana Fairy Tale”, which was the first theme song used in the PBS Production of This Old House.
Song/Wiki: Larry Clinton and His Orchestra recorded the one of the most popular versions of the song. Featuring vocalist Bea Wain, the Clinton version was a huge hit. Released in December 1938 on Victor Records, the Clinton recording was number one on the U.S. popular music charts for nine consecutive weeks in 1939. The next one popular version was made Artie Shaw with vocalist Helen Forrest. The song is a sentimental ballad. The tune was a favorite of Babe Ruth, and Peter DeRose performed the song at Ruth’s birthday parties for about a decade. The song remained a traditional pop favourite, recast in 1957 as a doo wop classic by The Dominoes with vocals by Eugene Mumford. Screamin’ Jay Hawkins (best remembered for his rendition of “I Put A Spell On You”) also released his version of “Deep Purple” on his 1958 album, “At Home with Screamin’ Jay.”
1939 soundie, Helen Forrest with the Artie Shaw Orchestra.
The version everyone knows, Nino Tempo & April Stevens.
Thanks to MCPOAirdale for making me think of this one.
Great pic, Stoaty!
Comment from iamfelix
Time: August 5, 2009, 12:29 am
Dear Stoaty: Would you fish my previous comment out of the spam filter, pretty please? Too many linkses. Either that, or the Obamacare spy-team got me ….
Comment from JuliaM
Time: August 5, 2009, 12:41 am
They can make an amazing variety of sounds:
http://www.foxforest.org/upclose/voicescarry.shtml
I can hear our urban foxes squabbling outside the window at about 4:00am occasionally – really eerie noise, if you don’t know what it is.
Comment from scubafreak
Time: August 5, 2009, 12:45 am
Could have been worse, could have been the Hound of the Baskervilles, or an American Werewolf on tour…….
Comment from jdub
Time: August 5, 2009, 8:16 am
ok,weez, you responsible for this?
http://cuteoverload.com/2009/07/14/theres-always-room-for-ferret/
Comment from Uncle Badger
Time: August 5, 2009, 8:21 am
‘sfunny, scubafreak – American Werewolf is exactly what the sky here has reminded me of these past few nights.
Which is, of course, just what I said to Her Ladyship, when she came in with her fur standing on end.
The very soul of tact, I am.
Comment from apotheosis
Time: August 5, 2009, 10:31 am
There is some comfort knowing there really aren’t all that many big mammals in the UK, and none of them are rabid.
Comment from Allen
Time: August 5, 2009, 11:52 am
On Sunday we picked up a wolf pup (about 75% wolf.) It was a rescue. The stupid bastards who had him didn’t realize that a wolf pup howls like a wolf, and abused him.
I love it when he howls, gives you that tingly feeling. 🙂
Comment from scubafreak
Time: August 5, 2009, 12:15 pm
Speaking of Werewolves, UB, can you and Stoatie get to this site?
http://www.hulu.com/watch/25757/the-dresden-files-hair-of-the-dog#s-p2-so-i0
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: August 5, 2009, 12:26 pm
Alas, Scoob — losing Hulu was one of the sadder sacrifices I had to make:
I can get it, but I have to go through an IP scrubber. Which gums up the transmission sufficiently to give grievous buffering problems.
It’s hard being a ferriner.
Comment from scubafreak
Time: August 5, 2009, 12:30 pm
Too bad, The Dresden Files are a favorite of mine…. All 12 episodes that aired……
Think Harry Potter gets expelled from Hogwarts and sets himself up as a private dick in Chicago……..
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: August 5, 2009, 12:44 pm
Ahem, Allen — puppy pictures?
Comment from Allen
Time: August 5, 2009, 1:19 pm
Sure thing Weasel. He’s still a little spooked right now, but I’ll try to get a decent one this evening.
Ha, he’s still just a little guy but if he grows into his feet he’s going to be a heavyweight.
Comment from JuliaM
Time: August 5, 2009, 4:19 pm
“The Dresden Files are a favorite of mine…. All 12 episodes that aired……”
It was a pretty good adaptation. Better than they usually are.
It’s available as a box set over here, for peanuts:
http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/3384376/The-Dresden-Files/Product.html
Comment from MCPO Airdale
Time: August 5, 2009, 7:22 pm
Which is, of course, just what I said to Her Ladyship, when she came in with her fur standing on end.
BWAAAAAAHAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA!
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