Foxy Visitors (Warning: Large Photos!)

There hasn't been much daytime fox activity lately, so I was truly shocked to walk into my dining room this morning to see this:



That's Patch, sitting on the deck, not twenty feet from me (dining room chair in the foreground). I think he might have chased a squirrel up there, and stayed because he could see into the closest bird feeder (which was simply alive with birds on this rainy morning). Normally my camera is just to the left of the deck door, but fortunately I'd taken it into the study the night before, and my husband was able to hand it to me so I could get some shots.



At one point I thought he'd spotted me, but perhaps because he couldn't hear or smell me, I didn't register as a human. He stayed on the deck for a good five minutes, and I was surprised at how small and slender he was up close, and how quickly he moved. He seemed a bit nervy: maybe due to the unfamiliar surroundings, or to the unusual proximity to the birds.



Those ears. That beautiful fur dotted with rain. I about died from happiness.



Eventually Patch trotted down the deck steps, into the yard and off through the neighbor's property. I'm still shaky over the whole experience. I haven't encouraged the foxes to approach the house, and I don't want to make pets of them, but seeing Patch so close was like being given an unexpected and very personal gift.

It's been a long time since I updated this thread. With the advent of spring, my daytime fox sightings have been less and less frequent, although there are three foxes - Patch, Kink and Wisp - who come into the yard at nighttime on a regular basis. I know this because I keep an infrared trail cam focused on the areas they frequent.

It's now definite that Patch is a male, and Kink and Wisp are both female, as both the latter started looking quite portly in late March/early April. Toward the end of April into the beginning of May, they barely came into the yard at all, and those visits were really on the fly - as if they were hurrying. My guess was that both had kitted, or were about to. Both looked thinner and a bit scroungy. Last night's trail cam footage provided proof positive: Wisp came into the yard, trailed by two adorable kits.

I thought I'd squeeeee myself to death.

I put one of the videos up on YouTube. Let me know if you have difficulty viewing it.

Wisp and Her Kits

Of course all this is happening as I'm getting ready to go on vacation for ten days. I'm so torn...

My husband (who is not given to squee-ing) said the kits looked like plush toys. And they do. I would love to see them in daylight.

Actually, when I was looking out the deck window this morning, one galumphed merrily though the yard, all by his lonesome. I had already packed the camera so no photo evidence (he was moving too fast anyway), but I did get more baby fox action on the trail cam last night. This is Patch with one of the kits. I think Patch may be the baby daddy for both Wisp and Kink; foxes can be monogamous when it suits them, but they can also be polygamous, too.

Wisp and her two kits were in and out of the yard for several hours yesterday afternoon. I wasn't aware of the activity until dusk was coming on (I'd been making dinner and doing laundry), but fortunately the trail cam caught all three of them in daylight. The kits are getting big and Wisp is looking rather thin and harried. I was going to dial back on feeding since there's more natural food available to them now that summer's nearly here, but for Wisp's sake I think I'll keep on for a few more weeks.

Here are two lovely videos of the little foxy family prowling around the yard. The kit who stays furthest from the camera has a pronounced white mark at the end of its tail, so I'm calling it Tip. I'm waiting to name the other one until I see some strong identifying mark.

Video #1 - Wisp and Kits Come into the Yard

Video #2 - Wisp and Kits Being Adorable

Fox update: I got quite a bit of nighttime b&w footage over the summer and fall, but it's only been in the past couple of weeks, as winter is setting in, that I've seen the foxes in daylight - both in person and via the trail cam. My husband bought me a second cam back in September and we set up another station closer to the house.

Wisp's two kits - Black Tip and White Tip - have grown up. Another young fox (so good looking that I christened him "The Handsome Stranger," or just Stranger) joined them periodically through the summer and fall, and he has lingered in the yard while Black Tip has moved on. I think Stranger and White Tip have paired up; for the past several weeks they've been appearing together regularly. Wisp still makes the occasional appearance; she still looks scraggly and has the signature hunched back, occasional limp and weepy eyes (conjunctivitis) that are the hallmarks of sarcoptic mange, but she seems vigorous enough. The trail cameras have caught White Tip scratching furiously and gnawing at her front legs, so I'm afraid she may have mange developing as well. I'm hoping to get that under control once I sort out how to keep Stranger off the dosed food so she has a chance at it - he keeps beating her to it.

Anyway, here are some photos from the trail cam, taken at about 8 o'clock this morning.




Stranger in the back yard, studying one of my bird feeder stations. In the accompanying video, the feeders were swaying, so there must have been a bird up there, out of the shot.



Stranger again, this time in the side yard, and looking right into Trail Cam #2. Back during the summer I relocated both cameras closer to the ground and have been getting much better shots as a result.



And here's White Tip (said tip barely visible). Her fur is just a little scraggly and I'm really hoping I can get the meds into her before she gets as far gone as poor Wisp was this time last year. She really is a startlingly beautiful creature, incipient mange and all.