Welcome to my Micanopy Fox Watch

GRAY FOXES GATHERING

August 9th, Micanopy, Florida Fox Watch
Hello everyone,
Today I have a really nice video with 4 and 5 foxes eating and running around. Mom, Dad and a few kits.
Syanne was missing for a couple of days but she was back this morning.  If you watch my videos you will start to see the difference in the looks of each fox.  Handsome dad is very strong and disciplined.  Young mom doesn't ever want to miss a treat so she always comes out first.  She is  smaller and darker than her mate.    One fox had a mottle looking coat because he had missing patches of fur in several places when he was younger.   I don't know what from.  But now his fur is all grown back so I can't hardly recognize him ..One fox is so tiny that  she stands out from the rest.  Her name is Lucy.

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This is Lucy with one of her larger brothers. This kit is taller and thinner than Picasso, lucy's cross to bear.
I call this little guy Little Ricky. He and Lucy seem to get along well.

Anyway, the video starts out with most of the family together in a kind of typical fox day. They get scared easily. Watch how fast they scatter if just one of them makes a sudden move.  Foxes never stop moving, that is why they are so skinny!
Thank you for watching... after all  to quot a line from a song I once heard :"if there ain't no audience their ain't no show" !

Hello Foxwatchers, nature lovers

Today I will be uploading some of the kits who are now at least 6 months old. There are two juveniles featured in these photographs.

The tiny little girl I now call Lucy and her bigger brother whom I have named Picasso.

Here they seem to be in harmony with one another so maybe the intimidation may have stopped.

Look how much biggerPicasso is than Lucy. Sweet little Lucy, has really held her own to be so small and had a great desire to push on...

Last year one of the foxes was injured pretty bad so I am not sure if he stayed on this earth that long or not. His name was Van Gogh because he had an ear that was completely messed up. Also, two of the kits plus Shyanne had a bad limp on the same leg. I think someone had been shooting at them with a bb gun aiming at the same leg. ... I hope that is NOT what happened but it just seemed odd they all had the same lip. Shyanne came back all healed this spring and I was happy to see that.

This year all four kits are healthy and strong. You can just look at their body wight and the beautiful clean fur they wear to know that these fox are healthy.

I hope you will become a follower of my blog.

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Sandra L Russell

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YOUNG FOXES GETTING BOLDER

Hello Fox Watchers!

Today's blog VIDEO is really spectacular. It is long but it just gets better and better to the end. The little foxes are really running around and testing their surroundings without adult supervision, though the parents are close by.

This video begins with the little foxes coming out first with out an adult fox. They seem afraid of EVERYTHING! ( I have observed from my many hours of fox watching that foxes are really scared of their own shadow! ) Though they are together, they even seem afraid of each other.

When you watch the video, look for the little girl fox who keeps coming out from the left of the screen. I think she must live behind the tree with mom fox. She is so much small than the rest of the foxes. ( Females tend to be smaller than the males)

I think that she was intimidated by her bigger male sibling when they were babies. Look at my blog in July for the pictures of the little baby foxes. You will see a photo of one of the foxes "yelling" at the littlest girl and she is cowering. I don't really see him bothering her anymore, but the trauma was server, I think, and that is why she is so timid.

When foxes start to grow up they will do this. The dominate fox gets more food and more attention. I can see from my videos that she is still timid, even around the adults. Sometimes I just want to go pet her and tell her everything is ok... of course that is just a fantasy. I would never pet the foxes for it is their Wild Nature that is so wonderful.

In the middle of the video, the parents come out and the little foxes stand back, like they are doing something they shouldn't be doing. Shyanne also shows up and it is clear that the kits are close to their grandma.

Nothing seems to bother Shyanne for she is the sage of foxes.

In the end of the video, 4 -5 foxes are all there and the little ones are still scurrying about, scaring themselves along the way. Look how fast they flee when "something" scares them.

. The adult foxes have taught them well... a smart fox is a cautious fox!

I hope you get to watch this whole video. It was a great day for Fox Watching In Micanopy, Florida that day.

All the best,

Sandra

HOME COMING

August 1st, 2010


This is a photograph of Young Mom and her partner Handsome Fox.

If you notice the mom is still showing from nursing her young. It was early June when I took this image. Mother is not showing at all any more and the young juveniles are running around, and emulating their parents at this point. They are getting braver everyday as it is not long now that they will move away from "home" and start their quest to make their own family.

This is the second litter I have watched grow up. I get pangs of "empty nest" myself , knowing that they will all be leaving soon. It will be interesting to see who stays behind the tree this fall.



August 1st, 2010 ...I just returned from my art show in Ann Arbor Michigan where the fox photos were a big hit! I heard many stories from other people about the fox or foxes they have seen but most people have never seen a fox in the wild before and rarely a gray fox.

Whenever I leave for an art fair, I am always afraid that when I get home that all the foxes will have moved on.

However, that has not been the case as they live and play and raise their young here. I am just part of all that to them.... when I am here, they know I bring them treats but they do not rely on my small hand out for food.

They are great hunters and love to eat bugs and moles and other small rodents. There is plenty of fox food around here!

When they come to the fox brunch, it is a way for them to gather and enjoy each others company and the day without fear that something will happen to them. If I had a dog, I would not have foxes. Most people who live in the county have dogs so their property is not safe for a fox. That is why I think I have so many here.

Sandra

FOXES DO NOT EAT CATS

FOXES DO NOT EAT CATS. They are pretty much indifferent to them. Foxes stay 15 -20 feet from all other animals ... that is their comfort zone.
I am no exception.

They may sit out side and wait for me all morning but when I come down the stairs and go into the yard they will start backing up or feeling uneasy...
I am glad. I have no intention of trying to make these fox pets. It is the wildness that attracts me. Their adaptability is amazing. I am very lucky to be able to observe a whole family/clan as you will, of foxes in their natural habitat. They actually made me their friend not the other way around.

It was the foxes who built their home 30 feet from my back door and chose to live under my house and it was the foxes who summoned me when one of their own needed help.

Truthfully, I am a city girl living in the country and quit frankly, the first time I saw one of the foxes I was afraid. I had been taught to fear a fox ....sly, eat your chickens,kill your cats and dogs, hunt them down, rabies...blah blah blah... how foolish to trust fables...as fact.

Getting to know the foxes has been one of the most interesting parts of my whole life and I have been around quit awhile now.
Really. I know, that sound hard to believe, being a fox and all, but it is true.

to be continued....





Foxes are very, very smart.

TWO BABY FOX EXPLORING

THESE LITTLE FOXES ARE ABOUT 2-3 MONTHS OLD AND THEY ARE DISCOVERING THE WORLD OUT THERE... AREN'T THEY ADORABLE? THEY WERE BORN UNDER THIS OLD BUILDING.

THREE KIT FOXES PLAYING