By April, I thought maybe they had moved on after all.
Recently though, I'd started to catch fleeting glimpses again. Usually just the swoosh of a small figure caught out of the corner of my eye. Sometimes dashing for the fence line at the back of the property. Sometimes dashing for the barn.
I wanted to get a picture, even a crummy one, but invariably my phone was dead, or I'd put it down somewhere, or my hands were full, or wet, or she was long gone by the time I got my phone free.
Last week I heard the screams again.
But wait, I say to myself.
I never saw the first litter. You can't be working on a second litter yet, Ms. Fox. Where is my first litter? Where is the litter playing in the spring sunshine? Where is that first litter I was promised?
Wikipedia promised me. The internet promised me.
I was a little disappointed.
Until this morning as I passed by the old barns to let the sheep out.
Hands free.
Phone charged.
And lookie there, it's not even mama fox, it's babies! At least three different kits.
In the spring sunshine.
Sparing you the worst of the phone photos, here are a few of one kit. You gotta look close at the last couple to see the tiny little guy.
Yea! Good shots!
ReplyDeleteYears ago, I lived in northern CA and a silver fox made a den just across a ravine in back of the house. I could step out and watch those kits playing on the hill. They are amazingly fun and intelligent creature - unless you are overly attached to chickens:)
ReplyDeleteMagical!
ReplyDeleteI love red foxes - I am always amazed at how long their legs are. Even with chickens, I love them. Outside of my high, wire-bottomed chicken yard fence. Nice shots!
ReplyDeleteLove the photos. I see gray foxes occasionally around my house in the woods north of San Francisco, and that's always a treat. A couple of summers back, a young one came by on a daily basis to hoover up the wild bird seed I tossed out on the deck.
ReplyDeleteThe birds weren't too happy about that, but such is life.
Your brother Lee turned me on to your blog -- we work together doing lighting for various television shows here in LA -- but as a country boy who grew up milking our half dozen Anglo Nubian goats every night (up in the barn where our pig, three cows, and a couple of horses fed), I enjoy reading about your life on the farm. It takes me back, although you have a lot more animals than we ever did. All the best to you and your flock as spring turns to summer...