THE BEAUTIFUL LANGUAGE OF FOXES

This is one of my favorite videos that I took in Aug 2010. The kits were almost grown and soon after this slowly but surely all the foxes disapeared. I put food and water out every day but they did not come back. I was so hoping to have a third litter on the property in 2011. However, because of the dry weather that year the foxes went away to find a better place to live.
Unfortunatly for myself, I too had to move from Micanopy in Jan. 20112.  Right before I left, I saw freshly dug fox holes all around the property. Some of the holes no more than 30 feet from the house.  The hardest part of having to move was that I would never get to see the foxes again. I am settled in New Orleans but I honestly still think about the foxes everyday.
Two weeks ago, around Feb. 15th my neighbor Lynn, in Micanopy, told me that her neighbor saw a fox on his property around his chicken coup... however, he said that he did not mind loosing a couple of chickens to the foxes.... so everyone who has learned about the Jar Head story sees foxes in a new and accepting light. This makes me happy.
Please go back to older post to see more videos that I took in 2010. 
Thanks for reading my blog. I still want to hear from anyone that has a fox story themselves!
Sandra

Today's video is my all time favorite. There are moments in this video when the adult foxes move in complete tandem with one another as though it was a beautifully  choreographed  dance and they were responding on cue! .
 You can see them communicating with one another in a silent language only they understand. You can't help but notice it. In my opinion it is simply breadth taking and fills my heart with an incredible sense of joy and emotion you want to hang onto but can't.  Those moments are rare and special so I must say I have watched this particular video over and over when I need a little boost of joy to my day.

  There are all kinds of activities going on in the tree line where the young foxes hold back as long as they can.  Shyanne the grandma of the group plays the game with the young foxes where she gets a piece of food in her mouth and teases them with it.
I have watched them do this over and over and the intention of the adult foX is for the
little fox to win.  At one point in this video you will see Shyanne teasing  a little fox  and once she drops the food for the little one to get, she goes over with another piece and drops it at the little foxes feet, making sure she got her share.

The music I have chosen for this video couldn't have been better as the tempo and the
spiritual quality of the music matches that of the beautiful gray foxes.
I would like to recommend that you watch this in full screen if your computer allows and also watch it more than once. After a youtube plays a lot of little videos to choose from shows up at the bottom. Please ignore this as all of those videos are not mine and might not be friendly to foxes.  Stay on this page and go to the next blog post below to play that video. Thanks for for visiting my Micanopy Fox Blog and come back soon.

Sandra

Fox lesson #2 Stop looking and you shall find

Hi Fox Watchers
Did I tell you that I thought my gray  foxes were living on the other side of the hwy from me?
Well a couple of weeks ago, I saw, from a distance, a fox crossing the road in front of me.. but it was too far away to tell what it looked like..
So I have been riding my bike or walking every morning in hopes of seeing it again.

Well, yesterday, April 30th,   I said to myself that you never find something you are looking for  until you stop looking for it and decided  that the only way to see a fox again was to stop looking for one!
 In fact, I was chatting with a Local  woman, named Ann, in the little town of Evinston, Florida, where I ride my bike to, and she said she had not seen any foxes lately. I also heard several people tell me they had to shoot a fox because it was acting strangely and either had  rabies or distemper.  This made me sad and I began to wonder about my own fox clan and the fox I had seen this spring.
People around here like foxes and would not shoot one unless it was sick.

Anyway, yesterday I had been walking for almost 3 hours ..about 4 miles, taking photos and chatting with people along my way. It was about 11 am as I walked home and the sun was high and hot. I stopped to rest a minute actually thinking I couldn't make it up the next hill and was walking very slowly, not looking for a fox at all, just too darn tired to pick up one foot and put it in front of the other slowing my pace.

About that time I looked up to discern just how much farther I had to go and there to my amazement  was a  red fox prancing across the road about 20 feet in front of me!
It was clearly a red fox and not one of mine. Though I was thrilled to see a fox at all, I was also disappointed that it was not a gray fox. I was not able to get my camera turned on in time to take it's photo but I took one in my head and decided it was a good day even though the fox was not my clan.

That was Saturday.

This morning, Sunday, I took off on my bike at 6 am and road on past where I had seen the fox the day before, and pursued my goal of getting to the cow pasture before sunrise hoping to get some interesting shots. On my way back, I decided to wait awhile by the road where Red Fox was crossing yesterday.
However, no fox. But instead of going home I decided to ride a little while longer down a dirt road I had not explored yet and come back to that spot around 10.
When I got to that spot I leaned my bike against a tree so I could handle my camera. I watched the road for a few minutes but didn't see a fox there.
 However, I just had a feeling that a fox was near. So I switched my viewing and  I looked down the dirt road, adjacent to the main road, towards an abandoned  house that I have been photographing.  I knew I had seen some fox tracks in the sandy dirt road a few days before.

Low and behold, right down that road was the same beautiful red fox I saw yesterday. It was just walking through the grass in front of the old house!
Wow, How lucky and excited  I was...so I fumbled with my camera and got a few shots of her.
When the fox became aware of me it turned around and started walking up the dirt road towards me and I took the photo below.
However, it kept coming right at me, non threatening but all the same, with the rabid storiesI had heard about  I decided to just say "no, no" .and gently put my hand up and it turned right around and disappeared into the woods.
It was approaching me in a friendly manner, like a dog would do but still... it was probably best that I just snapped the one photo....instead of letting it get closer....of course, I have to wonder, if I had not scared it away, what would have happened... maybe it would have come up to me and licked my hand......  well, probably not....
Below are the photos from today.

This is the abandoned house where I saw the Red Fox. It is a perfect place of a fox to have a litter of kits!

I fumble to get my camera focused but this is the best I could do.

I am sure she or he was going to this house where their kits probably were born.

This is Red, walk right towards me about 50 feet away.

Part of me wishes I had just let her keep approaching but

my first instinct was Better not....yet anyway.

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

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.

THREE KIT FOXES PLAYING

young fox cubs playing

These kits were born back by this old studio about a football field from the house.
There parents are very protective of their young..on this particular day that I took these pictures, I did not see any adults around for the 45 minutes I was able to observe them romping and playing.
The next day, was a different story.
So excited to have seen the new litter, I was hoping for a similar show, but when I went back to the same spot, I was met by the dad fox and by the look on his face, I decided against it so I snaped his picture and said "see ya later dad"!
After that I never saw them back there again. It is common for a fox to move its litter if they feel it has been threatened, even by a fox loving fan.