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.

favorite perch

The broadtails are fighting over favorite perches near the currant bushes loaded with tiny pink flowers. They like perches with a 360 degree view so they can see the competition coming. Sitting on the tip of a dead branch, the hummingbird looks left, right, and back twisting and turning his head above late May's food of choice - the wild wax currant flowers. Though they perch elsewhere, this little upward pointing twig is the spot they most often choose. The first image was taken last evening in the after glow of sunset. The next one, this morning, same place but from a slightly different angle to take advantage of the morning light.




1/640 sec at f/5.6, ISO 400, focal length 300mm





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


For a look at a broadtail feeding on a currant flower, go to this page of my website: http://www.dailyphotography.net/hummingbird_gallery/pages/natural_food.htm

Looking for more fox kit photos? A new gallery of fox kit photos is on my website now. http://www.dailyphotography.net/redfoxgallery/index.htm

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.

shooting the moon

At dusk Saturday evening I was shooting a broadtail hummer in an aspen, but it was too dark to get a good shot, so I shot the moon. Here are both the moon and the bird:

snow

This week's storm dumped 2 feet of snow on us and knocked out power at my house for over 12 hours. It snowed all day and night on Tuesday, a heavy wet snow that bent and broke trees and power lines. One neighborhood some miles from here is still without power. The temperatures are warm, though, so the white blanket is quickly melting. This shot of Lions Head was taken a few minutes after 6 am Wednesday with the canon 30d 28-135mm lens at 28mm and f8. Shutter speed was 1/13 second. I used a tripod and mirror lockup.

I had my first hummingbird sighting today and shot a few quick pics of her near my feeder. Nearly noon, the light was not perfect, but I'll have a look at those shots later and perhaps post one.

Pasques at the Patterson's

I went to visit my good friends, the Pattersons, a couple of days ago. 'Twas a good thing I had my camera along, for this group of three perfect pasques is quite a rare thing this year. With all the snow and freezing rains we've had, many of the pasques have brown frostbite on the petals. These three beauties must have emerged at just the right moment between the snows. We had snow again last night, so I wonder how they are looking now. Many thanks to the Pattersons for allowing me to crawl around on their ground shooting the flowers.

The broadtail hummingbirds should be coming any day now. I've read reports of a few sightings in the area. My feeders have come out of storage and are washed and ready. My two year old fuchsia is blooming in the greenhouse and ready to be hung outside - but only during the day, the nights are still too cold for it. I'm hoping my next post will include my first hummer pic of the year.

"Pasques at the Patterson's" was shot with Canon 30D, 60 mm lens, 1/125 second at f/8 from about 18 inches away.

Spring?

Spring Greetings!

I shot this photo of a pasque flower Monday, two days ago. Yesterday it was covered with few inches of snow. Much of the snow melted yesterday afternoon but high winds were blowing snow around and I stayed in. This morning, Wednesday, it's 17 degrees F and I'm reading that we may get as much as a foot of snow on Friday.

I'll keep looking for these beautiful little fuzzy wildflowers between snows for the next few weeks. For those of you who don't know these flowers, they are quite small (2 to 4 inches tall) members of the buttercup family. This was shot from ground level (read: wet knees and elbows) with Canon 30D and 60 mm lens from about 20 inches.

The first hummingbirds should be on their way soon. You know what I'll be shooting for then. :-)

Steller thief

This Stellers Jay is looking to steal Uncle Abert's (in previous post) seeds and peanuts. He perches in a ponderosa pine nearby and calls his friends to the feast. Then, he lands on the low junipers or an old fallen tree to get a closer view of the seeds I've spread on the ground. He's not fond of me or the camera, but if I am still and quiet he will stay long enough to pose for a few shots.
Canon 30D with 70 - 300 lens at about 200mm.

Uncle Abert

Uncle Abert poses for my camera to thank me for the bit of multi-grain bread I tossed to him from the deck. He's an abert's squirrel of the gray and white variety, we have black ones and brown ones with ear tufts here, too. Last time I posted an abert's squirrel photo online, someone commented that my squirrels had been messing around with my rabbits. Another poster suggested that I'd altered the photo in Photoshop. Not true, and those who live in areas of the western U. S. where these squirrels are common know that these squirrels are real. This one had been visiting each day for for a week to eat sunflower seeds and corn when I decided to throw him some bread. We are good friends now, as long as I stay on the deck and don't venture too close to him. Shot with Canon 30D with 70 - 300mm lens at about 300mm.