A wildlife artwork in progress.

Red fox and jewel weed. This wildlife art piece is a tapestry of details, right down to early morning dewdrops.

Jewelweed grew all along a certain little dry season creek where I was fond of playing when young, and as a result I witnessed many a battle between hummingbird males who had established territories along its route to guard this incredible nectar resource. The creek also attracted other animals, including foxes.

While foxes have no interest in jewelweed, they do like to prowl up and down the creek looking for prey. Their method of hunting is to listen carefully, cocking their head to one side to better detect its position, before leaping up and over their hidden prey.

One morning we saw this red fox doing this leaping so much along the creek that it seemed it was more interested in the exercise than in actually trying to catch anything. Reflecting on the memory a few days later as I walked through masses of delicate jewelweed, sending sprays of iridescent dewdrops in all directions, I was intrigued by the way water dances on the highly water repellent leaves, because it behaves differently than on most other plants, and wondered if the fox had just been enjoying the act of scattering droplets, too.

Energetic, like mercury in a lab dish, morning dew on jewelweed can be a breathtaking sight.

#RedFox #Jewelweed #Fox #LeapofFaith #SusanAWalton #SAWaltonStudio