Foxy!

Squeeeeeeee!!!

The foxes have been SO much fun to watch the last few days! Mama made a den in the culvert under out laneway and had EIGHT babies. They come out several times a day now to play. Cute overload!

Here is one entrance to the den, where until this year a groundhog lived. Am wondering if groundhog became fox supper!

And the other entrance coming out of the culvert under our laneway. Our laneway is about 250 metres or 820 feet long! The foxes are about halfway down and I am really hoping the kits stay away from the road. Our laneway is quite safe for them because no one but me ever speeds down it! :)

Two kits rolling around on the laneway, on poking up out of the den on the right!

Mama saw me...

...then took off right across the field, leaving the babies to die at my hands!! Nice mothering skills!

But  all I was shooting was photos.

See those things on the right of the kit? They're wild turkey feathers! I found more around the den entrance. Apparently the foxes bagged a wild turkey, which is pretty impressive!! Wild turkeys are really hard to catch.

Here's another view of our laneway looking towards the road, with foxes on either side. That field on the left has been planted in hay this year.

 And now, assorted cuteness...

I have been using my 200mm lens and trying not to get too close to them, so these pics are a little fuzzy. I can get within a certain distance, then they all disappear down the hole! 

We also watch them from the house with binoculars. They are just too adorable when they're all out there playing and jumping about.

So right now we have Mama raccoon and her babies in the granary (relax, I have raccoon babies here every year and it has never been a problem!), Mama fox and her babies by the laneway, and an Eastern Phoebe nesting in our barn about three feet away from Mama Muff hen, who has once again built herself a nest up on the stone foundation that we are too soft in the head to dismantle. We'll see if she hatches out babies again.

The duck/chicken run is getting a wire roof very soon so that the birds can no longer go over the wall. In the meantime, I'm trying to be vigilant about putting back the duck girls who like to get out and wander around. They don't need to meet the foxes!! Knock wood, we never have problems with predators when the ducks and chickens are in their coops or run. This new roofing thing should keep them completely safe.

In the meantime, we are REALLY enjoying the daily fox follies!