Fox News: Mom sometimes looked threatening and very angry. She often growled and snapped at her pups, especially when she was napping and one or more of them found her tail. Other times she looked blissful. Then there were the eye-squint looks that seemed to say, "I love you, but you are such a pain in the ... Can't you just leave me alone?" I so enjoyed all her moods because I could empathize closely to what she experienced.

Count noses! Five kits is quite a handful and mom tried to take naps, to little avail.

Bath time in Fox World.

Fox News: “Yes, you will take a bath.” This mom means business and shows it by eye-squinting and sticking out her tongue just a tiny bit. The little one knows what’s up and shows submission by holding its head lower than the mom’s, and not looking her in the eye.

Now, back to Fox News. Did you know that foxes are the only canine that climbs trees? One night, I saw the silhouettes of several babies moving cautiously along the branches of my plum. This morning, after an hour of tussle, one spotted an old ladder leaning against the house. Soon, I could hear three babies tromping around on the roof, while the others looked on in surprise.

Now the owlets are 6 weeks old. Ronnie moved them into a 20-foot square flight cage decorated with branches and a nest box for shelter. She installed a plastic wading pool and stocked it with leaves, twigs and live brown mice. Sure enough, the rustling and motion in the pool attracted the owlets and soon they were catching their own meals. Owls are insatiably curious: in the wild they explore every nook and cranny, and investigate every sound or movement in their neighborhood. If you’d like to support the work Ronnie does, she’s a licensed, independent wildlife rescuer, and help her with her volunteer efforts to save these wonderful lives, you can buy her book, go to www.TouchingWings.org, or send donations to P. O. Box 1336, Mendocino, CA, 95460. She and the critters thank you!

The screech owls are now 3-4 weeks old. They are being raised with the least amount of human contact possible, once their eyes open, because they will imprint on the first critter they see (hopefully another owl) and identify with that image forever. These owls are now about 4 inches tall and are able to eat whole mice purchased already dead and frozen in neat little packages from a commercial rodent farm. My friend Ronnie James has federal and state licenses to raise rescued birds and other small animals. Her non-profit organization is called Woodlands Wildlife and she is always in need of donations to help feed wild baby animals. You can donate to this worthy cause by sending a check to Woodlands Wildlife, P.O. Box 1336, Mendocino, CA 95460. Ronnie and the owls thank you!

Baby Screech Owl orphans 7-10 days old

We interrupt Fox News to bring you...baby screech owls! My friend Ronnie James, founder and director of Woodlands Wildlife, holds numerous state and federal licenses to rescue and care for orphaned or injured birds. These baby screech owls were brought to her one spring. They are 7-10 days old and, as young birds, their eyes are closed and they are blind. Their nest tree was cut during illegal forest clearing done for an equally illegal “agricultural” project.  The babies could have been returned to their parents by putting up a nest box high on a tree, and their parents would have happily continued to raise them, but the entire site was an ecological disaster with heavy equipment rolling around removing all the trees and shelter. Woodlands Wildlife kept them in an incubator for a few days and every hour they dined on mealworms and fillet of mouse sprinkled with vitamins. To order a wonderful book from Woodlands Wildlife, full of stories of the animals Ronnie helped over 25 years, go to www.TouchingWings.org

More Fox News: This is week five of the little foxes out of their den, it's the third week of April and all photos are taken through my kitchen window. I am meticulous about making sure I am not seen. This time, one little guy did spot me, so I began to darken all windows before photographing through the one, so my silhouette wouldn't show.

Young Foxes at Play

Two of the litter of five gray foxes, Northern California

I am so curious about the foxes' activities. There are long periods during the day when I hear nothing. The young are way too small to hunt with her, but they are so quiet that I think she has carried them off to a new den. Only when she is around are they noisy, like right now. Still, no male to be seen. How does she hunt and make sure her pups are safe? What a responsibility!

I love octopuses. At the Monterey Bay Aquarium, I've stood transfixed by their octopus's grace and perfect ease with the water and rock environment. Octopuses are among the most intelligent of invertebrates (animals without backbones). All animals are intelligent, Plants too, but when I recognize something that matches a quality of human intelligence, I feel especially connected. The octopus can play, problem solve, learn, remember, and communicate. Their intelligence can be likened to that of dogs and cats. This video shows you their amazing ability to camouflage. --> http://www.sciencefriday.com/video/08/05/2011/where-s-the-octopus.html

This is the reason I create interpretive panels. I recently completed an interpretive panel for the Guckenberg-Strum Preserve, owned by the Northeast Wisconsin Land Trust.

People have been sending me wonderful items about foxes and other animals. Here is a funny story about a red fox in Germany. Notice how different this fox looks compared to our gray fox.

Reuters – A fox looks for food along the edge of a farmer's field in a file photo. REUTERS/Andy Clark
Fri Jun 12, 10:39 am ET
BERLIN (Reuters) – A fox has been unmasked as the mystery thief of more than 100 shoes in the small western German town of Foehren, authorities said Friday. A forest worker stumbled upon shoes strewn near the fox's den and found a trove of footwear down the hole that had recently been stolen overnight from outside locals' front doors. "There was everything from ladies' shoes to trainers," said a local police spokesman. "We've found between 110 and 120 so far. It seems a vixen stole them for her cubs to play with." Although many were missing laces, the shoes were in good condition and their owners were delighted to reclaim them, he said, adding that no reprisals were planned against the culprit. (Reporting by Dave Graham; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

Fox Songs

 
















I live in gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) territory. often, when I come home at night, I am greeted by the fox's bark. If you think foxes are generally quiet, they are. However, it is always a treat to hear the call of a wild animal. In this video, you'll hear several kinds of fox calls from different species. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6NuhlibHsM&NR=1&feature=endscreen. You can see why the scientific name of the gray fox means cinnamon-silver.

Have a look. A client just sent this brief Fox News video about the opening ceremony at a Nature Preserve in Menasha, Wisconsin. It shows a clip of a ribbon-cutting ceremony and an interpretive panel I recently designed for the land trust there.  http://www.fox11online.com/dpp/news/local/fox_cities/area-marsh-made-more-accessible

Trailside Panel created for the NE Wisconsin Land Trust. It's at the Stroebe Island marsh in the Guckenberg-Sturm Preserve.

Photo from National Geographic: Osprey ready to grab a fish.

Ospreys are hawks with specialized attributes that enable them to catch and carry fish. When an osprey dives beneath the water's surface, its long talons and strong toes grab a fish's back, while spiky scales on the undersides of their feet create grip. In this Osprey Catching Fish video, you can watch its great effort to free the submerged wings enough to take flight, and you can see it maneuver it's prey so the fish faces forward in an aerodynamic position. Then, as the osprey clears the water, it'll shake like a dog to release heavy water. All effort must go toward escaping the deadly watery realm with its dinner.

Telling a Better Story: Best Practices for Developing Interpretive Panels for Trails

In April, Jenny Rigby, of Acorn Group, and I developed and presented a webinar for American Trails, Telling a Better Story: Best Practices for Developing Interpretive Panels for Trails. Although we donated our time to design this program, there is a fee to view it because the webinar is a fundraiser for American Trails. Take a look at the webinar, and pass it on to others. For free, you can read the detailed answers to the questions participants submitted--and learn a lot!

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Our new website: http://www.ericafielder-ecoartist.com/

Why Interpretive Panels Are the Best Buy for Your Money

 

Why should anyone, in these tough times, spend money on trailside signs? If you want more people to know your trail, to use it, and to care about it, interpretive signage is the single best investment you can make. Here's why:

·      Informative signs can increase your trail's usage.

Want users to talk about your trail at dinner tonight? Interpretive signs give a trail an identity and make the experience of using the trail more enjoyable and more memorable. The more associations visitors have with your trail – vista points with catchy names, a bit of curious history, a game they enjoyed playing – the more frequently it will come to mind, and the more others will hear about it.

·      Interpretive signs can make your trail more accessible. Invite a broader and more diverse audience to your trail, and make them feel welcome. Even very simple gestures can accomplish this: images showing an under-represented group enjoying the trail; a welcome message in multiple languages; trail length and specifications that help people with disabilities determine whether they can use the trail. Interpretation clustered toward the start of a trail, or around a small loop, gives users something to do while resting, and can make a short walk feel like a worthwhile accomplishment. 

·      Attractive signage automatically encourages stewardship. Whether trail users read interpretation or not, the mere presence of attractive, professional quality signs give visitors a strong impression of high value. Studies have shown that even when visitors have learned nothing from reading interpretive signage, they consistently attribute a higher value to a site with a sign than a site without. Users who value your trail will be good stewards.

·      Signage turns your trail's users into advocates and volunteers. Well-crafted interpretive signs show visitors why your trail is important and why it should matter to them. Now that you have users on your side, signs can also communicate threats to your trail, direct users to take action, invite new volunteers, and turn fans of your trail into advocates.

·      Trailside signs are an investment that lasts.
Quality interpretive signs last for a long time. A good fabrication firm will guarantee the product for 10 years, and signs will often endure the elements even longer than that. During all that time, your signs are working as silent advocates for your trail.

Erica Fielder Studio has been designing interpretive signage, trailside panels, and displays for the great outdoors since 1983. We offer original artwork and engaging text at an affordable price, and we take your sign project from idea to installation.

I like Erica Fielder Studio’s personal commitment to producing the best product with unique art that draws the visitor in.

— M. M, Director, Mendocino Land Trust

Watch for announcements for Telling a Better Story: Best Practices for Developing Interpretive Panels for Trails. This will be shown on the American Trails webinar site, April 26, at 10:00 AM, PDT. American Trails does charge a fee to view this webinar so go to their site for more information: http://www.americantrailsstore.org/items/webinars.html

American Samoa Interpretive Panels

I just posted some jpgs of interpretive panels I'm creating on my Facebook page. Go to http://www.facebook.com/ericafielderstudio to see the latest postings. These panels are being produced for American Samoa in the South Pacific. While doing research for the educational panels, I discovered that the Samoan Islands are among the least westernized of of Polynesian islands. 

Since the Samoan language and culture are mostly intact, our panels display both Samoan and English text. Although I have no idea how to pronounce the words properly, the spelling and the way they sound with my pronunciation, reminds me of the sound of ocean waves. This makes me wonder if languages formed in distinct habitats, like islands or jungleshttp://www.facebook.com/ericafielderstudio, somehow reflect the sounds of those habitats and the critters that live in them. Does anyone know? If so, I'd like to hear from you.

How To Write Interpretive Text That Stimulates Your Visitors’ Minds and Hearts

Interpretive text writing for wayside displays, interpretive panels and visitor centers has become specialized during its one hundred year history. On a hiking trail, for example, such text must be easy to read quickly, convey important facts, and inspire an emotional connection to the natural or cultural feature your visitors are looking at. We would be so happy if your visitors fell in love with your site, inspired by the displays we make for you.

Here are some guidelines we at Erica Fielder Studio would use if we were to write interpretive text for your wayside panels.

To begin, we make the viewers experience easy and direct by picking a single focus such a particular old tree at a park filled with acorns. Then we ask ourselves these questions:

1. Does the text describe the theme as part of a larger story? Does it include expanse of time and space, how the site is being modified today, what we can expect in the future?

2. Does the writing evoke a sense of place? Does it help your visitor create an appreciation or attachment to this site? Are there cultural and spiritual values we can weave into this theme that will enhance your visitors’ understanding? Can this theme be presented as part of human history?

3. Does the text help your viewer make connections? Does it include analogies, similes and metaphors that relate to personal experiences and help lead to understanding the theme’s deeper meaning?

5. Does the text engage your visitor on an emotional level? Most of us tend to forget facts. However, when we simultaneously experience feeling, we are more likely to remember facts and their meaning over time.

Average panel viewers spend 43 seconds in front of a wayside panel or other outdoor exhibit so obviously we can’t fill it with all the facts and personal experiences we can think up. However, you’ll want them to gain as meaningful an experience as possible as they jog by. So, the text we write for you is concise and to the point. 

Here is the final text our talented text writer, Maraya Cornell, wrote about the old granary tree at Cache Creek Regional Park in northern California. She used interpretive guidelines to make it lively and personal. The colored text highlights the personal characteristics woven with the facts.

To see more tips on how to write for interpretive displays, view archived newsletters http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs075/1102292071623/archive/1102454491371.html