Thursday, April 30, 2009

My Neighbor is One Foxy Mama!


It was so cool, as we were driving home from church on Easter, to see a gorgeous red fox sitting on top of his den. This is just up the street from our house, in perfect view of a main road. I knew that he lived near us; I'd seen him in the distance one early morning a few years ago. The den is so camouflaged though, that even though I pass it multiple times a day, I couldn't pick it out consistently before that Sunday.

Then, a few days later, I saw not only my fox, but also 5 or 6 kits as well! Tumbling and rolling and wrestling, with MAMA fox standing guard. What a celebration of spring! So I've been stalking my fox, keeping my camera in the car in hopes of catching them all in photo. But that mama fox is a good, protective mama. The one time I saw her and a kit out, she saw me stop across the road and hid the kit behind her, before shooing it quickly into the den. She just stared at me, moved farther from the den, and then eventually ran off, I assume to lead me away from her kits. So I'm sorry I don't have the perfect picture of them all scampering about, but here's the gorgeous mama fox, and if you look closely, maybe you can see the tail of the kit behind her tail.

2 comments:

Anne Marie said...

What a beautiful creature. It's so sweet how she was trying to protect her babies. I love seeing the mama instincts in nature. Hope you have a great weekend.

JSLindgren said...

Wow! I was excited about racoons in our neighborhood. I can't imagine a fox! It's a good photo and I can see the little one's tail.