Larry A. Smail's Blog

Sumac

Laurie and I decided to take to the fields behind the house for a nice hike in the snow. There is something about walking in a snow on windless day (or night) that is good for the spirit. The walk was an ascension up and over the hill behind the house. From this vantage point on a clear day one can see across the Allegheny River onto distant hills and hollows. This is an enjoyable view.  Today we could just make out the outline of the hills due to the snow.

We continued our walk along a long ago abandoned field covered with sumac, goldenrod, briars and young oaks. As we walked along  I was talking about seeing plenty of fox tracks in this area a few weeks ago. Suddenly, a fox ran towards us at about 200 yards along the same border. But wait… that isn’t a fox!  The animal proved to be a coyote! A ‘yote sighting is always a wonderful critter to observe.

   We walked around to see an area I called the “field of red” where a number of staghorn sumac thrive and grow. When the cottontail rabbit was a plentiful animal I would annually see where they would chew the bark from sumac where I grew up.

On New Year’s Day, Susie (my springer spaniel) and I were outside. I had erected two brush piles for a rabbit that was traveling in the area to my feeders.  Upon completion of these piles we were walking towards the house when I looked along the creek and a red fox was traveling past. This is the second time I have seen a red fox here and behind the house.