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always for the community VOL 23, NO 10
October 2018
www.valleysentinel.com
SPOTLIGHT
Celebrate Discover & Go Month in October at the Library The Contra Costa County Library is celebrating Discover & Go Month this October. Visit your local branch and enjoy the Library’s ongoing partnership with Bay Area museums and cultural venues. Enter drawings for some great prizes and help give back to the community at the same time. The Contra Costa County Library is partnering once again with the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano. For every donation of nonperishable food items patrons bring to a participating branch, they can enter to win prizes including premium awards for some of
ECRWSS
Postmaster: Dated Material
PRESORTED STANDARD US POSTAGE PAID DANVILLE, CA PERMIT NO. 70
See LIBRARY page 4
It’s Fall, warm days, a little rain and cooling evenings. There is much to celebrate in the burning brilliance on display all around us. Fall produce is featured at the Farmers Market, and of course the squashes are more varied and decorative than ever. I took this photo at Trader Joe’s in Danville as they’re always first out with pumpkin everything. (…and I mean everything!)
Red Fox (Vulpes fulva) By James M. Hale
The Red Fox (Vulpes fulva), the largest of the true foxes, is one of the most widely distributed members of the Order Carnivora. They are found circumboreal a c ro s s t h e e n t i re N o r t h e r n Hemisphere from the Arctic Circle throughout North America, North Africa, and Eurasia. Their range covers nearly twenty-seven million square miles. Forty-five subspecies were recognized as of 2005. In 2010, another distinct subspecies, which inhabits the grasslands of the Sacramento Valley, Vulpes fulva patwin, was identified through mitochondrial haplotype studies. The Red Fox is extremely adaptable to new environments, and has increased its range worldwide due to suburbanization and human expansion. The introduction of the Red Fox to Australia has been
harmful to native amphibian, reptile, bird, and mammal populations. It is considered to be one of the world’s worst invasive species. R e d Fo x e s d i s p l a y a significant geographical variation in size, with northern foxes being larger than their southern counterparts. Adult weights range from five to thirty-five pounds, with the females, called vixens, weighing fifteen to twenty percent less than males. Large males may be twenty inches high at the shoulders, with a body length up to thirty-six inches. The tails may reach twenty inches in length, and are about seventy percent of the head and body length. The largest Red Fox on record in Great Britain from Scotland
weighed thirty-eight pounds, and was more than four and one half feet long. They trot at about four to eight miles per hour, and have a maximum speed of about thirty miles per hour. Red Foxes swim well, and are very agile and capable of jumping over a six and one half foot high fence. Red Foxes exhibit great
variation in coloration and pigmentation, including albinos and melanists. Three main color morphs are recognized: red, silver/ black, and cross. The typical red morph is bright reddishrusty, with tints of yellow. A stripe of brown-reddish-
This month’s Special Sections: Sentinel Newspapers, Inc. P.O. Box 130 Danville, CA 94526 925-820-6047
Fall Home and Garden pages 8-9
See FOX page 6