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A birdie, an eagle, an embarrasing duck hook -- all are part of the golfing tradition. But what about ball-hogging foxes and dive-bombing swallows? Or territorial swans with an attitude problem, poised to chase you halfway down the fairway? These, too, take their place in the Southern Tier golf experience. At some local courses, encounters with birds, bats and woodchucks are becoming par for the course. "You would have to be blind not to come in contact with wildlife here," said Barbara Thomas, a naturalist at Chenango Valley State Park in the Town of Fenton. A park since 1927, Chenango Valley and its forested golf course always have served as a wildlife sanctuary, said Thomas. However, like many Southern Tier courses, "State Park" has become even more attractive to wildlife in recent years, as golf course managers emphasize more environmentally friendly techniques. With creatures abounding, the inevitable happens: golfers and wildlife converge. When they do, some good stories arise. Whitney Point golfer Bill Stearns remembers being clearly outfoxed on one hole. He and eight other players were indulging in a friendly skins competition at the Endwell Greens Golf Club several years ago. In a skins game, explained Stearns, "the lowest score on the hole wins the money." Things progressed nicely until the competition reached the 12th hole -- a dogleg right, up a hill, to a blind green. The players teed off without incident. While preparing to hit their approach shots to the green, they noticed a fox loitering near the putting surface -- sort of hanging out; perhaps waiting for something to happen. "Everyone's ball landed on or around the green," said Stearns. "It's a blind green, so we couldn't see exactly where each ball had landed." Arriving at the green, the players were shocked to discover the fox had grabbed four or five balls in its mouth and was hightailing it for parts more secluded. "That's a mouthful for a fox," said Stearns, and, in truth, the load proved too unwieldy. Or perhaps the fox figured out a Titleist is not a chicken egg. Whatever the reason, it dropped the golf balls in a pile by the edge of the green. Then chaos. "Everyone was trying to figure out where his ball had landed before the fox took it," said Steans. "Mine was here. Mine was there," everybody was saying. They decided to call off the hole. Another fox, another golf course... Conklin resident Larry Gresham was playing a course near Syracuse last year with his wife and another couple. On one hole, he had just hit his tee shot and was waiting for his partners to hit when he noticed a fox on the fairway. "It came out of the woods, grabbed my ball and ran back," Gresham said. Approaching the spot where he'd hit his tee shot, Gresham looked toward the woods to discover the fox standing there, a ball firmly gripped in his teeth. "When I drove the cart toward it, the fox dropped the ball," Gresham said. Retrieving it, Gresham returned his ball to the fairway and then drove toward the spot where his partner's ball had landed. On his way toward that ball, Gresham looked back to discover the fox wasn't ready to quit. "He was running out after my ball again," said the golfer. "I turned around and raced back as fast as I could. I barely beat him back to the spot." Before driving off toward the green, Gresham reached in his bag, grabbed an old ball and tossed it toward the edge of the fairway. The fox trotted out, picked it up and went back in the woods. Excerpt from the Press and Sun-Bulletin, Tuesday, August 1, 1995. Stories by Rick Marsi. Submitted by Chris Wenhan.