After a week or so of relative calm in the garden (ie only brief sightings of the foxes), tonight was something of a break from the routine. The young regular cub was out this evening, and while I was taking some pictures I noticed a flash of coloured light in the camera viewfinder. It could only be one thing, and on looking closer I realized we had an audience.
Eyeshine in multi-colours gave the watching fox away
The second fox was one of the shy cubs, and at first it remained well out of range of the camera. It knew I was there though, and unusually stayed around. And for the curious, there was nothing much on offer from me; just a handful of sultanas.
Lingering in the shadows
I stayed still and watched, and to my surprise instead of running back it decided to come forward. Although I've one or two snatched photos through the window, I can't recall the shy cub ever approaching this close before.
The shy fox is on the left
The shy fox is at the rear
So far as identification is concerned a fox's brush is always a good guide for telling them apart. The shy fox has a much whiter tip to its brush. Previous foxes have also shown distinctive brushes: there was Kinky (with a distinct kink in her brush), and the old dog fox who maintained a sort of notch about a quarter of the way down.
And a footnote to tonight's post. The regular cub was carrying his right rear leg throughout this encounter. The photos don't show any obvious sign of injury, and although he carried the leg he was able to sit normally and move around quite easily. Possibly a strain, which is something of an occupational hazard for foxes. I'll keep an eye on it though.
SittingFox
13 Aug 2007Very nice to see the fox photos 🙂 I love the multicoloured eyeshine!
I wonder how many strains on average foxes get per year. It rarely seems to seriously affect them though.
Flying Red Fox Blog
13 Aug 2007Lovelly pics, the shy one is getting less shy 😀
Hope his leg is ok, probably a rough playfight or something.
gdare
13 Aug 2007Ha, it looks like a distant car lights (on a first photo) 🙂
They look good and healthy…and curious 🙂
Words
14 Aug 2007Darko – I used to get plenty of shots where all you could see were two dots!
Words
14 Aug 2007Mark – yes the shy one is getting bold. I saw it again tonight (briefly), but hte fact that it will show up at all is something of a surprise.
Words
14 Aug 2007Adele – he was still limping today, but beginning to put weight on it. It was painful watching him try and scratch with that leg… very, very slowly.