Red Fox – Tippy’s Beautiful Sister

Here is one of the young foxes from the family I photographed in the spring. The markings on her legs identify her. She’s been hanging around on the hill above my house and I took several photos of her scratching the back of her head with her hind leg. After viewing those images, I’m fairly sure this lovely fox is female.

I watch her from the deck in the shadow of the house, but she knows I’m there. I see her staring intently at something, usually I can’t tell what. If I make noise, she will glance at me for a second and then stare off at some point to my right or left refusing to make eye contact.

She stole a bread crust I had tossed to the stellers jays and carried it a short distance away and buried it by digging with her claws then dropping the crust and pushing leaves and sticks over it with her nose. She stalked one of the jays, but it flew to a high branch when she came too close.

red fox (Tippy again)

Red Fox Family Update with New ‘Tippy’ Photos

Tippy, the little runt of the litter with the crooked nose, is still in the area. I saw him (or her?) once in August running across the road. That distinctive face is easy to recognize.

Last week, I thought I saw one of Tippy’s siblings running by on the hillside. I haven’t seen the mother fox since spring.

Tonight, just after sunset, as we drove up to our house, there sat little Tippy almost grown. I set the ISO to 800 and hoped for the best in the fading light. The young fox moved a bit farther away into the tall grass after I took the first image.

And here’s a crop of the face from the 2nd image:

The offset jaw doesn’t seem to be a problem for Tippy. He is still small, but looks quite healthy. I hope that means he’s been catching lots of mice, especially the ones near my house. I’ve read that the red foxes’ favorite foods are mice and voles. The foxes eat as many as they can and then bury any others they kill for later meals. I like the idea that this little fox may be ridding the area around my house of rodents.

fox kits update

For those of you who have been asking about ‘Tippy’ and the rest of the fox family, I went over to the home where they have taken over the back deck and captured a few images on June 12th. Mother and kits are still calling the space under the deck home, romping, grooming, and hunting in the area. My friends may not be using their deck much this summer! When I arrived, the morning rain had ended and I was able to photograph the kits in that beautiful after-the-rain light when it’s seems even the air is full of color.

The first image is the little runt Tippy, the only kit my friends have named, with the small crooked nose. The first I saw when I was setting up to shoot. Mother fox ran by and dropped a live mouse in front of Tippy who swallowed it quickly. Here is Tippy with one paw on an edge of the multi-level deck shot at 1/200 sec at f/5.6, ISO 400, focal length 300 mm.

Often, foxes will move the kits from one den to another. This family seems content to stay under this low deck where we know they have been staying for at least several weeks. And why not? The large deck affords shelter and safety from predators. The kits can retreat far under the deck and have three or four outlets for escape.

The 2nd image is one of Tippy’s siblings whose tail is already getting the white tip characteristic of adult red foxes. Image captured at 1/125 second at f/7.1, ISO 400, focal length 200mm. This kit has mostly black legs and I believe is the largest of the three.

The black legged kit is also in the 3rd image play fighting with the mother. There was a lot of this going on that morning, but the action was mostly behind the trees and I was only able to catch glimpses of it. Here, the kit with ears layed back goes after the mother’s neck while her open mouth moves toward the kit’s leg. I suppose a good mother must teach her children to defend themselves. Image captured at 1/200 second at f/7.1, focal lenth 300mm and ISO 400.

I’ve read that these kits may stay with the mother until September when the family will split up and go their separate ways. If they continue to use my friends’ deck as a base camp throughout the summer and I am able to photograph them, I shall post another update when they get a bit bigger.

This final image was captured at 1/125 second at f/5.6, ISO 400, 300mm.

grooming

Tippy holds very still for ear cleaning. Mother has big teeth! Sometimes, Tippy squeals in protest at all the grooming his mother does to him. The first image is a crop to show a close up of the big tooth. The one below is the full image. Image capture at 1/160 sec at f/8, ISO 250, focal length 200 mm.

Tippy

1/640 sec at f/5.6, ISO 200, focal length 300mm, cropped

Here’s Tippy, the runt of the litter of fox kits born under my friends’ back porch. Watching through the windows as the three kits play, this little one has captured my friends’ hearts and earned a name. He limps a bit, has a crooked nose, and shorter snout. Though he’s the much loved favorite of the people who watch from the house, I have waited to introduce him here. I wanted to make sure he was going to survive, didn’t want to have to post that he’d disappeared. Tippy caught a small bird resting on a low branch of a shrub a few days ago as I photographed the mother fox and her kits. He’s been seen with a mouse in his mouth and is running, hunting, and playing with the others, so it’s time to introduce him. Be assured, we do not feed these foxes. If we fed them, they might stop hunting and come to depend upon us. If we feed Tippy, he won’t learn to hunt and survive. We watch them and they watch us from a comfortable distance.

1/800 sec at f/5, ISO 160, focal length 200mm, cropped

This Evening’s Hummer, Yesterday’s Fox

This broad-tail hummingbird’s image was captured just after sunset this evening as he sat on a choke cherry branch with ponderosa boughs in the background. The late afternoon rain left everything dripping and the clouds reflected nice colors long after sunset. Shot at 1/250 sec, f/6.3, ISO 400, with 70-300mm lens at 300mm.

Yesterday morning I filled a couple of cf cards with fox images. I haven’t had time to look at all of them, but this one is typical, mom cleaning behind her kit’s ear. There are three kits, each with it’s own look and personality. This image was shot in mid morning sunlight at 1/800 sec. f/4.5, ISO200, with 70-300 lens at 120mm.

Kits, Hummingbirds, and Spring

Spring has finally pushed winter aside. Fox kits are emerging from their dens, hummingbirds are fighting over feeders and wax currant flowers, and raindrops are replacing snowflakes. Just over a week ago, we had a foot of snow with phone and power outages (again!) and ice on the windshields last Monday morning. But now, the weather is warm and springs seems truly to be here.

Friends Cris and Glen invited me over to photograph the fox family living under their deck. The beautiful kits won’t be this size for long. Startled by the sound of the camera, they would run back under the deck and bark for their mother who seemed bored and not at all concerned at the people watching from the window.