Fox Sighting and Hickory Exploding

Today I saw a fox trotting along in a field. I stopped to get a photo, crouching and running in the field. She spotted me from far off and took off at a slow run.

Here's my attempted photo.

I can't even see her! She was rusty orange with black around her muzzle.

Then I saw a Pileated Woodpecker at Georgia's school, but the zzzip of my camera case zipper made it fly away. I was glad when her teacher sent a photo along with the daily school update. The bird was beautiful, the red crest is shocking and lush. She is as big as a crow. Impressive.

Then I saw my first Heron of the season, but was driving late to work so I didn't even try to snap a photo.

I did get a photo of this hickory bud opening into leaves. It looks like a firework!

In my googling on line to verify that this was a Hickory tree I found a blog titled Hickory Bud which I was enjoying, then I realized the author's last post was April of last year. She had since passed away. Her obituary said one of her favorite subjects was the fox. Sad, how on the internet you can meet someone and lose them so quickly. I'll put a link to her silk paintings because I think they're beautiful.

http://www.marthagreenwald.com/Silkpaintings.html

These failed attempts at nature photography have made me much more esteem for Bill Danielson, the beloved (at least I love him) naturalist who writes in every Thursday of our local paper. He gives details of the struggles he goes through to obtain just one photo of a precious bird. He puts in hours behind a blind.

I'll appreciate wild animal photos more now.

Here's a link to his website:
http://www.speakingofnature.com/