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.