Positive Anticipation
With positive anticipation I walk the pasture, searching, waiting and hoping! It has been just over a year since I had the glorious pleasure of seeing something I have never seen before in such magnitude. Last May, early in the morning, I spotted a fox scurrying across our pasture with a gopher in her mouth. Not a totally grand event, but for me, an animal lover, I grew curious and excited, for many springs we have seen twin kits wrestling in our corrals and I was hoping to be privileged to see the sight once again! I called my son, and encouraged him to hustle, it was still early enough before school for us to investigate. I grabbed my camera, hopped into the Escape, and drove to the power pole where the fox was eager to get to with her gopher. To our surprise, we caught glimpses of not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, not six, not seven, not eight, not nine, but TEN little kits!!!! I couldn't believe it, do foxes really have that many kits in a litter?
They were wrestling, playing hide and seek and ready for breakfast. I was lucky enough to get a few photographs! I spent the summer following them, crawling through the tall grass in the pasture and in the ditch to catch a glimpse and some photos. It was tough to do, with the wind blowing the tall grass and my dog tugging on my arm when her eyes fastened onto the foxes. Let's just say, my shots were blurry. I resorted to using a tripod, but still managed to miss several shots... tripods are so cumbersome.
This spring, I have been peeking out our bedroom window every morning and walking past the den most days, hoping, waiting and wishing that the mother will peek her head out of the den with little ones... but so far... boo hoo, no foxes. They had a rough summer. To our dismay, we found many dead foxes on the road and in the ditches... but maybe, with luck, some survived and will come back for a visit or an extended stay! With positive anticipation, maybe we will be fortunate to have some fox adventures this spring and summer!
They were wrestling, playing hide and seek and ready for breakfast. I was lucky enough to get a few photographs! I spent the summer following them, crawling through the tall grass in the pasture and in the ditch to catch a glimpse and some photos. It was tough to do, with the wind blowing the tall grass and my dog tugging on my arm when her eyes fastened onto the foxes. Let's just say, my shots were blurry. I resorted to using a tripod, but still managed to miss several shots... tripods are so cumbersome.
This spring, I have been peeking out our bedroom window every morning and walking past the den most days, hoping, waiting and wishing that the mother will peek her head out of the den with little ones... but so far... boo hoo, no foxes. They had a rough summer. To our dismay, we found many dead foxes on the road and in the ditches... but maybe, with luck, some survived and will come back for a visit or an extended stay! With positive anticipation, maybe we will be fortunate to have some fox adventures this spring and summer!
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| Where's My Breakfast? |
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| I See Six |
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| Peek a Boo |
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Foxes really do have that many kits in a litter!!! Are they not the cutest lil' red fluff balls ever? We had a pair of foxes that lived under the old house/now grain bin in our yard for a few years. Their kits would play out in the open even with us close by but as soon as a strange vehicle/person(s) were around the took cover. Two years ago they disappeared. :( We don't know if they were taken out by the coyotes or by a not so friendly person. :(
ReplyDeleteWe were suspicious too about a not so friendly person. One day we found one little guy dead, half out of his den hole. His snout was full of sand and it looked like he suffocated. There was a bunch of litter, like a plastic container... around, so we were wondering if it got into some poison. It was very sad. We buried it next to our two horses' grave sites in our corrals.
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