Rain & Warm

It rained most of the night, 10 mm or so in my part of the valley and then on and off most of the day, while the temperature popped up to the 5 to 6 C range, which is the first time the temperature has been that warm for weeks.  My estimate is that the freezing level was at approximately 5500' based on the fresh snow above that level, so that's a pretty high level, but we didn't get enough rain to make too much difference to the Bella Coola River.

This red fox was pretty curious today when I went for a short walk at lunch.   He was with another fox and I think he was the dog fox of the couple based on his wider facial features and the other one that ran away was much more dainty looking in the face so it was likely the vixen.   My quick search tonight (Hinterland Who's Who) suggests we are in the fox breeding season right now which would explain why this gentlemen was not that pleased looking.  For those not from Bella Coola, red foxes are really common, they pretty much go from the estuary to the end of the valley and come in a huge range of colours from black to the colour of this one.

Speaking of Hinterland Who's Who, with my friend Google I found a beautiful colour explanation  about foxes in under 30 seconds, but I remember as kid watching those ancient Canadian Wildlife Service Hinterland commercials on scratchy black and white TV and actually sending away a letter requesting their fact sheets.  The fact sheets would come back weeks later in an official government envelop often with a cover letter, "Dear Kid:  Enclosed are the fact sheets you requested..."  which in those days were black and white with beautiful line drawings.   I collected these as a kid - I think I still have them, maybe I should try selling them on  Ebay or perhaps my kids really want them?  Probably not though, times have changed. Grizzly