Foxy & Adorable !

Naturally, from the title of this blog,
you determined this blog is all about
me

Not !

Seriously, this blog is about 2 little red foxes
that I saw last week.

I was driving towards a nature preserve area
and to my left, about 150 yards from the road at
the edge of the woods
I saw something....I wasn't sure what.
But, there were 2 of them.

My first thought was fawns,
but they were too small.

My next thought was wild turkeys,
but they were too light in color.

So, I turned the car around
and drove back to the area.
The only place I could park
was at the edge of the field
where I saw the two small animals in the distance.

I picked up my camera and looking through
my 500mm lens, I discovered that the two
animals were little baby red foxes, kits.
They were essentially exploring the field,
perhaps looking for moles & mice.

So, I took the camera and got out of the car
crouching down on the driver's side
to keep the vehicle between me and the field
and fired of a few photos of the 2 kits.
However, they were much too far away for any good photos.

So, I decided to walk towards the hedgerow
near the edge of the woods, making like I didn't see the kits.
I hoped they would ignore me, or at least think they weren't seen.
Much to my pleasant surprise, this worked.

I then moved slowly & quietly up that hedgerow towards the kits,
ensuring, that I wouldn't be detected.
This enabled me to get a few better shots, but mostly,
the brush was in the way of clear shots.

I kept moving towards them, stopping whenever they looked up.
Nonetheless, the larger & closer of the two kits
apparently saw me, or perhaps heard me and bolted for the woods.

The smaller of the two was still 40 yards away and did not see her sibling's alarmed reaction.
However, a moment later, I think she too became somewhat alarmed
and went into the woods too.

So, I walked up to where the bigger kit went into the woods and saw no sign of him.
I then walked up to where the smaller kit went into the woods and again saw no sign of her.

Thus, I decided to walk into the woods to see if I could figure out where their den was.
I quietly took about 7 steps into the woods and I heard something behind me.
The smaller kit came out of the thickets to investigate what the sounds (of me) were.
I froze in my tracks with the camera pressed to my face.
I was literally 25 feet from this little kit and she had no idea what I was.

I fired off about 20 shots of her lying in the grass, playing with a leaf, scratching herself, walking etc... simply adorable !
The lighting was mixed o sun & shading and thus, not ideal at all.
However, I consider myself VERY lucky to be this close
in observing this little adorable fox.

So, here are my 4 favorite shots of that session
Which is/are your favorite(s) ?

click on each photo individually to see the whole photo and
to restore resolution.

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