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Cleanup Day June 4, 2005 is the date for our annual Cleanup Day. As many of you know, it is a day to get outdoors and spiff up our neighborhood - dig up a few weeds, trim some shrubs, pick up trash that has blown in over the winter and talk with folks you haven't seen in awhile. It is always a lot of fun and we hope you will join us. We will start at Ralph and Janet Hanna's (14141 E. Maplewood) at 9:00am for the usual coffee and juice and donuts and passing out of trash bags and "pickup sticks." Lunch will be served around 11:30am and all residents of Sanctuary are invited to lunch, whether or not you make the cleanup activities. Signup sheets will be at your door soon so we know how many to plan for lunch. Please be sure to respond, and put that date on your calendar now.
Thank you! The annual Cup O'Cheer was a grand success for another year, thanks to our excellent hosts Jim and Anne Murlin. There was lots of wonderful food and lively conversation and a good deal of laughter. This is always one of our most popular events and your Social Committee hopes you can make plans to attend this year's event. If you would care to volunteer your home to host this holiday party, please call Jean Roup at 303-400-8113. |
Fox, fox! That's what I heard from "across the way." It was Jim Fitzgerald telling me to look at the red fox just below our deck. He was a beautiful red fox and he was in the process of getting his lunch of Voles, or Meadow Mice (more on those later.) We watched him as he snagged two and carried them off. The red fox is essentially an omnivore. It eats mostly rodents, rabbits, insects and fruit. They will also eat carrion. They have a characteristic manner in hunting mice. The fox stands motionless; listening and watching intently for a mouse it has detected. It then leaps high and brings the forelimbs straight down forcibly to pin the mouse to the ground. Daily consumption is between 1-1/4 to 2-1/2 pounds per day. Red foxes are solitary animals and do not form packs like wolves. Their range, in good habitat, like we have in the park, is between 5 and 12 sq. miles. Individuals and family groups have main earthen dens and often other emergency burrows in the home range. Dens of rabbits are often taken over by fox. The same den is often used through several generations. In our area, reproduction is generally in January and February. Females will mate with several males but will establish a partnership with only one male. Just before, and for a time after giving birth, the female remains around the den. The male partner will provision his mate with food but does not go in the maternity den. Litters vary in size from 1 to 13 pups with an average of 5. The pups are born blind but open their eyes 9-14 days after birth. Pups leave the den 4-5 weeks after birth and are fully weaned by 8-10 weeks. Mother and pups remain together until autumn after the birth. Sexual maturity is reached by 10 months. Red fox use a variety of vocalizations to communicate among themselves. They also have excellent senses of vision, smell and touch. Red fox male and females, and sometimes their older offspring, cooperate to care for the pups. Most red fox that are taken by natural predators are young pups. Their family, to avoid this, keeps pups close to the den. Coyotes, wolves or other predators may also attack adult red foxes but this is rarely in order to eat them. The most significant predators to the red fox are humans, who hunt foxes for their fur and/or kill them in large numbers as pests. Contributed by Jim Murlin, Resident Birdman and Animalologist
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