THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 4, 1996 TAG: 9608020252
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Coastal Journal
SOURCE: Mary Reid Barrow
LENGTH: 106 lines
Almost as if the red fox were waiting for me, the sleek, lithe animal was poised atop a dune by the road into Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge as I drove by early the other morning.
I was on my way to meet Gary Williamson, chief ranger at False Cape State Park (just south of the refuge), because he had told me about the numerous red foxes he had seen in the park this summer. And just as if to prove Williamson right, the fox was there to greet me.
Although gray foxes can be found in this part of Virginia, Williamson said he never had seen a red fox here until he arrived at False Cape this summer. He said an isolated population of the critters has somehow managed to thrive in the harsh sandy environment of this barrier spit between ocean and bay that extends from southern Virginia Beach down to North Carolina's Outer Banks.
This, despite the fact that in 1985, ``Mammals of the Carolinas, Virginia and Maryland,'' a book by W. David Webster, James F. Parnell and Walter C. Biggs Jr., reported that the red fox was rare in this area and unknown on the Outer Banks.
The red fox population has obviously changed since 1985 because it's a rare morning that Williamson drives up the beach and doesn't see a fox right on the beach or back in the dunes. One evening his wife, Phyllis, counted 13 critters, and other times the couple has seen up to four or five in an evening.
When the foxes are out on the beach, they are generally hunting ghost crabs, Williamson has noted. The whitish, square-backed crabs scuttle across the beach and live in sand burrows above the high tide line.
``They actually come out and dig up the ghost crab burrows,'' Williamson said. ``They are very dog-like in the way they dig and they grab the crab with their mouth and trot off to the dunes to eat.''
Williamson said the foxes look healthy but are lean. He suspects their limited diet accounts for their size. According to the mammal book, red foxes eat mainly rodents and rabbits. Although both can be found at False Cape, there probably aren't as many of them as there would be in open fields and farms, the red fox's usual habitat.
Like many mammals, however, red foxes are opportunistic feeders, feasting on whatever they can find. The mammal book says they even eat insects and plants in summer, so maybe ghost crabs are not that unusual.
Campers at False Cape State Park enjoy watching the foxes, Williamson said. And the foxes seem curious about the humans, too, standing a little distance away and observing the campers sitting around evening campfires.
That morning when my car came close to the fox, it wasn't curious about me. It darted daintily and quickly back among the dune grasses, but not before I got my first good look at a red fox in the wild. This one was truly red. Williamson said all the foxes he had seen were red, too, without any of the black or silver streaks sometimes seen in red foxes.age 16
Gray foxes also can fool you into thinking you've seen a red one because they often have reddish fur around their neck and sometimes even on their flanks and legs. But the red fox's white tail tip is one sure-fire identification mark, Williamson said, although it's not always easy to see because the fox holds its tail down much of the time.
``Whenever someone says they have seen a red fox, I always ask, `Did it have a white tail tip?' '' he added. ``That's my best field mark.''
Williamson and I only saw one of the shy critters as we drove down the beach that morning. It quickly crossed a sand road leading to the interior of the park from the beach. But when we went searching in the area, we found several fox dens. The holes were dug in the side of the dunes near the top where the dune grass roots would prevent the holes from caving in.
The animals, which mate for life, use their dens year-round as a place to sleep and to have their young. Earlier in the summer, Williamson saw smaller foxes. Since man is the red fox's enemy, perhaps these critters have found the secluded False Cape environment, however harsh, to be a place where they can thrive.
P.S. Gary Williamson will present a program, ``Snakes Alive!,'' at 8 p.m. Thursday in the picnic shelter at First Landing/Seashore State Park and from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. next Sunday at False Cape State Park. Call First Landing at 481-2131 and False Cape at 426-7128.
THE ORGANIC GARDEN CLUB of Hampton Roads will hold its annual Harvest Party at 7 p.m Wednesday at Fire Station 3 on International Parkway. Bring a dish or vegetables, herbs or flowers from your garden. To find out more, call 486-0230.
THE SOUTHERN WATERSHED MANAGEMENT PROGRAM is the topic of a meeting of Back Bay Restoration Foundation at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Princess Anne Recreation Center. Call 412-4240 for information. MEMO: What unusual nature have you seen this week? And what do you know
about Tidewater traditions and lore? Call me on INFOLINE, 640-5555.
Enter category 2290. Or, send a computer message to my Internet
address: mbarrow(AT)infi.net
SEE THE PARK FOR YOURSELF/Page 16 ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARY REID BARROW
A red fox pauses near the den it has dug among the dunes at False
Cape State Park. The foxes live in the dens year round. by CNB