Posts Tagged: fox kits

Cute Fox Review

I’ve been asked to come up with a red fox exhibit, so I’ve been digging back through the archives to see what I can come up with. Here are a few of my favorites.

This next weekend, November 22-24, I’ll be at the 802 Arts House Celebrate Vermont Art Show at the Doubletree in Burlington, VT. I’ll have lots of prints, note cards and calendars. Stop by and say hello. All the show details here: https://www.starbirdevents.com/celebrate-vermont.

My 2025 New England Wildlife Calendar is still available. You can order them on my site www.IanClark.com.

On to the foxes. I think some of the first professional level wildlife photos I took were of a fox den in Swiftwater, NH, back in 2013. A friend found a den and tipped me off. I was able to set up my blind and watched the family for about 25 hours over several mornings. And I was hooked. Fox kits are just too cute to ignore.

I’d seen the kits out and about before I set up my blind. After getting installed in the blind, I had about 45 minutes of anxious waiting to see if they’re reappear. This guy eventually came out and posed.

Soon three more kits appeared and started interacting.

Interacting the way siblings of all species interact….

Boop!

Thwack!

Mom appeared to deliver breakfast. Mom could hear my shutter and gave me a hard look before deciding I was not a threat.

A few years later, a friend told me she had kits living under her barn. She’d been watching them for a time, often from a lawn chair not far from the barn. When I showed up to photograph them, they watched me set up my blind before going about their business. I pretended to hide, they pretended not to see me.


My first couple of trips to visit them, they didn’t do much playing. They spent a lot of time sunning near the barn and occasionally chasing small things I couldn’t see.
This guy had a tail to tell…


Eventually, they got around to playing.

I’m bigger than you!

No you’re not! And I’m gonna chomp you!

Oh! That’s a takedown!

The next den I found was in a busy park, not far from a well-traveled path. The first couple trips, I took my blind. After watching people walking their dogs between me and the kits – without the kits reacting – I decided I could skip the blind.

This den was hard to photograph. There was a lot of brush around the entrance, and the kits liked to run down the bank on the far side of the hole. I’d been watching the den something like 60 hours before I got them to pose nicely.

The next year, a friend told me the vixen had moved the den. She was being seen regularly, but I needed to search to find the den. After a couple afternoons watching and searching, I found the den. About an hour before sunup the next morning, I set up the blind, cut some brush to further hide me and settled in to wait. About 45 minutes later, Mom returned from her errands, trotted right past the den and came up to inspect me. Good thing I hid. She decided I was uninteresting and went on about her business.

This past spring, a friend found me a den in a cow pasture. There were five kits that were happy to romp in the pasture while I watched.

Exploring near the den.

Learning what is edible and what isn’t.

Watching crows fly past. All very cute, but I was still waiting for the wrestling to break out.

Got your nose!

Fierce foxes fighting ferociously!

I hear there are several snow owls that have been spotted in New England. I’ll be out looking for them after I get past the show next weekend. Happy Thanksgiving!

Red Fox Kits

Friends in West Newbury helped me locate two red fox dens. One has four kits, the other five. All of the foxes look healthy with beautiful coats. And fox kits are just darned cute.

I’ll be giving my slideshow, An Uncommon Look at the Common Loon, twice in the near future. The first will be at the Lyme, NH, School at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 30th. The second presentation will be at the Tenney Memorial Library in Newbury, VT, at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday June 23.

I’ll have another post with updates on the loons and their neighbors shortly. The Westons are sitting on their nest, we know they have at least one egg. The Middletons are building their nest, should lay their eggs any day now. The road to the Eastons has been repaired, I’ll get up to visit them as soon as I can.

Finding a fox den is a treat. But it means long hours in a blind waiting for the action. When I found the first den, I set up a blind and several game cameras to let me know what was up. The first morning it wasn’t raining, I snuck into the blind before dawn. And waited. Eventually, the kits appeared.

This cute little guy came out to enjoy a snooze in the sunshine.

Eventually, the siblings came out and spent time exploring around the den. And biting each other’s tails.

After a time, mom showed up and the kits eagerly nursed. Mom has the patience of a saint, the kits were squirming and kicking, trying to displace the others.


A good look at mom with one of her kits. Pretty sure she’s spotted me.

The second den is in a cow pasture. It looks like mom took over a woodchuck hole and enlarged it. Here two kits sit not far from the entrance to the den.

Kits spend a lot of time playing. The play helps them develop skills they’ll need as adults. They spend time stalking each other and pouncing. They’ll often wrestle. good practice for subduing prey and defending themselves. And it is just fun to watch. With five kits in the tall grass, it was hard to keep up with what was going on. They’d appear from behind the grass at a dead run, then disappear. While they were wrestling, I’d often get a view of just a paw or maybe some ears above the grass before they’d disappear again.

Lots of teeth and play biting, but no one gets hurt.

Looks like we have a winner for this round.

When they’re not sleeping or playing, they spend time watching the world, learning what is a threat and what could be the next meal.

Red fox kits
Foxes have to be wary of threats from above. These kits are getting big enough that they’re probably safe from hawks and eagles. But nature doesn’t favor those that take chances. And, a bird landing nearby would make a nice meal.

Red fox kit
One of the entrances to the den is near the base of this post.

Red fox kits
Exploring the bush near the den.

Red fox kits
Chomping the bush…

Red fox kits
A cute moment as two kits size each other up.

Here’s one kit stalking another…

And the fight is on!


Red fox kits
A good view of two of the kits wrestling.

Red fox kits
Got your nose!

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