Old Bob

Here in North Florida the loquat trees (Japanese plum) have been loaded with fruit for several weeks and it is beginning to ripen. My neighbor has a large tree that is covering the ground with ripe fruit.

Every year the grey foxes start making the rounds to all the loquats and eating the fruits that have dropped. This gives one a good cause to fix a cocktail and sit on the porch as twilight approaches. Those of you that play with cameras know that low light is less than idea for photographers. These pictures were taken at an ISO of 3200 & 6400, so they are a little noiser than I would like.

There are at least 3 foxes coming through and my favorite is "Old Bob". Now Old Bob is the last one to show up and is the most skittish of them all. (These pictures were taken at 2040 EDT.) After you see him you can understandwhy he might be cautious...

As you can see Old Bob is missing his tail, not to mention all the battle scars on his face and chest. Looking at the his grizzled muzzle it's a safe guess that he's been around awhile. He appears to be in good health and able to take care of himself. He's the "Rocky" of the neighborhood! Here are couple of the youngsters.

The great blue heron chicks are really growing. Here's picture from last week.