Garden Foxes (2)

Part 2 of my series of the Fox family currently in our garden. Originally we thought there were only three cubs, but one evening there were four on the lawn, accompanied by Basil. They were very excited, chasing each other around and play fighting. We have always fed Basil our food scraps which are mainly chicken leftovers and bones. I also put out peanuts which the Foxes and Hedgehogs like. But I decided it would be a good idea to get some dog biscuits, which the cubs soon discovered.

I am able to sit or lie on the floor to take the photographs without a hide, which makes things a bit easier, although at the early stages, any movement and they would be off, especially when they started coming up on their own.

Garden Foxes

Just over a year ago a very tame dog Fox started appearing around our garden. He was obviously very used to humans, as he would just sit or lie around the garden, not bothered by us at all.

My wife named him Basil and since then he has become part of the family. During last April it was obvious he was feeding a family of cubs, as he would take any food we gave him off into the woods. We hoped to see his cubs, but it was much later in June and July that we saw some almost fully grown, shy cubs.

This year in March he would take the food off again into the woodland and we soon realised that the den was very close to the house, much closer than we had thought. When April came we could hear what were obviously cubs making little squeaks and yelps. We eventually got a glimpse of three very small cubs playing with Basil in the undergrowth. A week later and they appeared on the lawn and the story goes on. I will do a series of blog posts as the cubs grow and mature. This one is just about Basil though.

 

It's hard work feeding those cubs and he gets very tired. Trying to find a bit of peace and quiet for a quick snooze.

Mountain Hares

A few weeks ago my friend Richard and I made an early start to try and photograph Mountain Hares. As the name suggests they live at high altitudes so the weather plays a big part in the success of a trip. We wanted shots of them in their white, winter coats. So trying to find a day when the conditions would be good enough wasn't as easy as you would think. The main problem being low cloud, then the strong winds and snow. Richard had been several times before but this was my first visit.

After a good walk to the hills through patches of snow and having to cross a waterfall, we split up and slowly combed the area. You would expect that they would be easy to spot with their white coats against the heather and grass, but they tend to hide in hollows and behind rocks. I flushed several that I hadn't even seen as I walked up the hillside. I quickly realised I needed to change my plan of attack, I had to try and spot them from a greater distance. After a while I did find one sitting out in the open, It was too far away to get a decent photograph so I would have to stalk it. I started to crawl towards it, getting a few shots as I got closer. Eventually after crawling what must have been 50 metres I was at a range for full frame shots. Over the next few hours I used the same technique to photograph a few more and came home pleased with the results. Hopefully I will be able to get back to them soon.

Foxes in the Garden

This post is a collection of some of the Fox images I took throughout early Summer. The cubs first appeared in the garden whilst I was in Iceland. By the time I was back they had grown quite a bit, so I missed the really "cute and cuddly" shots. Hopefully next year I will be able to photograph them at this stage. There were 5 cubs this year, from 2 broods and gave me lots of opportunities for photographs. I have added 40 new images of them to my main web site.

Sunbathing

Competing for the food by trying to push each other away.

Brown Hares Getting Frisky

I have been photographing these Brown Hares for over 12 years now. I have shots of them in most poses, from running, chasing each other, resting, some boxing and a few of the very cute leverets. With each visit it gets harder to find something different to capture of them. It would be nice to have more shots of them boxing, but it is very difficult to be in the right place at the right time and often this is over in seconds.

Having spent so much time with them over the years, you learn the signs of a possible action shot. A few weeks ago, a male was giving a female a lot of attention. He was following her around closely, at first she kept running away a little and I thought I might be in with a chance of some boxing shots, as she fended him off. This didn't happen, she accepted his advances and I was rewarded with my first photographs of a pair mating.

I now have 140 Brown Hare images on my main website -  Steven Round Bird photography

Badgers

At the end of June I spent three days in Oxfordshire with my friend Rich photographing Badgers. I have never properly attempted flash photography before and was a little apprehensive, not knowing what the results would turn out like. The first night was a real test with pouring rain. In actual fact this was probably a good thing as the Badgers were very active, probably due to the worms that had come to the surface. Other advantages were that the noise of the rain drowned out any sounds that we were likely to make in our pop-up tent hides as they were at times within 6ft of us. Presumably the rain was also keeping our scent down. I was pleased with the first nights results and liked the fact that the Badgers were so wet.

The second night went fairly well, they all came out at the same time. Some of the larger ones fur was covered in mud from going in and out of the wet sett entrances, it was a nice contrast to the first night. The third night was a bit of a disaster for me. Rich and I had swapped places that we had been in for the first two nights and I was lower down in a bit of a bowl. There was absolutely no wind at all and I think they could smell my scent. They wouldn't come close at all and after 7 hours I had managed only 14 shots. Frustratingly I could see Rich's flashes going off as I sat in my hide, there must have been a little bit of air flow in the right direction where he was situated. None the less it was a great few days and I was very pleased with the results.