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THE FRIENDLY GRAY FOXES VIDEOS AND PHOTOGRAPHS OF FOXES AND NATURE IN CENTRAL FLORIDA BY SANDRA L RUSSELL If you visit my blog please leave a short comment and let me know you were here. If you are intersted in nature photography and foxes in particular please sign up to follow my blog. Thank you, Sandra
November 7, 2011
May 10, 2011
Fox Lesson #4 Keep Moving
May 10th 2011
Hi Fellow earth travelers.
. I haven't seen the fox this week. I have been riding and walking every morning
though hoping to run across her again. She was so beautiful. She reminded me of my grandmother gray fox, Shyanne. Shyanne was clearly an older and more wiser fox. This red fox had the same look as Shyanne did. A noble fox. A wise fox. A mother.
Actually, my obsesion to see a fox has driven me to walking and riding my bike over many miles so I am getting healthy like the lean fox who never over eats or stops moving.
Below are some of my Back Roads in Central Florida PHotos
May 2, 2011
Fox Lesson # 3 GET UP BEFORE THE SUN RISES
Hello Nature and fox watchers
Foxes know that the morning is the best time of day.
They know that is when the "getting" is good. They run around free of fear of humans or cars and that food is easy to obtain. They know that the best time of day is before the sun rises.
When I wake before the sun rises I put on my shoes and dash out the door. I know that whatever happens in the next hour will always be a treat. It doesn't matter if you live in the country or the city or somewhere in between, the sun will rise over the horizon casting a beautiful glow over everything it encounters. The noise of cars and humans sounds is non existant and you will hear the birds singing like never before.What a show and just for you and admission is free!
Foxes travel on the same paths over and over as you can spot a fox path by the beaten down grass about 6 inches wide. The deeper the path, the longer they have been using it. It says, I feel safe here and I know my way around....Like the fox, I have been traveling the same path to Evinston every morning and every morning I am greeted with the same excitement as the day before just like a fox whose travels are many but paths are few for every day is different from the one before. It's all good before sunrise!
Foxes know that the morning is the best time of day.
They know that is when the "getting" is good. They run around free of fear of humans or cars and that food is easy to obtain. They know that the best time of day is before the sun rises.
When I wake before the sun rises I put on my shoes and dash out the door. I know that whatever happens in the next hour will always be a treat. It doesn't matter if you live in the country or the city or somewhere in between, the sun will rise over the horizon casting a beautiful glow over everything it encounters. The noise of cars and humans sounds is non existant and you will hear the birds singing like never before.What a show and just for you and admission is free!
Foxes travel on the same paths over and over as you can spot a fox path by the beaten down grass about 6 inches wide. The deeper the path, the longer they have been using it. It says, I feel safe here and I know my way around....Like the fox, I have been traveling the same path to Evinston every morning and every morning I am greeted with the same excitement as the day before just like a fox whose travels are many but paths are few for every day is different from the one before. It's all good before sunrise!
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| Evinston, Florida May 1, 2011 "It is all good before Sunrise" photograph by Sandra Lynn Russell |
May 1, 2011
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.
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.
April 24, 2011
FOX LESSON #1 SING YOUR OWN SONG
As I mentioned my foxes have found a new place to bring up their young this year.
I have been walking every morning to the place were I saw them last week but have not been fortunate enough to see them again. I am sure they are busy keeping their young ones fed and happy as foxes are very good parents. I should know as I was able to watch two litters of kits grow up with loving parents. If you have not watched my fox videos from past blogs please do. If you are pressed for time, watch the one I called "The Language Of Foxes" as it shows you just how communal and loving foxes are towards one another. The kits are about 6 months old in this video.
The other one I took of the first litter when the mother fox came and asked me to help her get a jar off the head of one of her kits (http://www.zazzle.com/thegrayfox)
This video is of the mother fox giving her kits one last meal. It is called "The Good Mother"
Even though my foxes are not right in my back yard they are and always will be in my heart. I learned a lot from those foxes and they opened my eyes to all the nature and beautiful things around me.
I will still be looking for foxes but I will be uploading videos and photos now of the things I encounter while looking for them.
I contribute my new view of life to the foxes and I will be expanding on the lessons I have learned from them.
Today's video is Fox Lesson #1 and it is called "Sing your own song" and it is a happy little Wren just singing away loud and with enthusiasm.
In a world where so many people want to be just like everyone else I say rubbish.
We all have our own song and that song should be sung with the enthusiasm of this little bird! Throw away the concept of what society thinks you should be and just be who you are. Your life and the world will be better off for it.
April 17, 2011
Still Missing my Gray Foxes
April 15, 2011
Well, I have decided that my fox family has found a new place to bring up their young this year as I have not seen any sign of them... until last week.
I was riding my bike just across the highway from my house and I saw a few little foxes run across a street in front of me. Just a glimpse, they stopped in the middle of the road, looked up at me and then disappeared into the woods.
Yesterday I just could not stop myself from going back to that spot and I walked along the tree line and discovered a worn path the same size as the paths they had made on my land when they lived here.
I was excited to find this path. It wasn't a long path so they were staying in a small confined space similar to the land behind my house.
So,after finding the path and hanging out for a bit I decided to ride my bike farther down the road and came back to the fox trail about 8 thirty am. I had just about given up seeing a fox but then up the hill I saw the silhouette of a fox with the sun shining through her coat. I was not that close but a car came by her and she stopped to let it pass as I rode my bike closer I could tell for sure it was an adult fox. I have a
feeling it is from my clan as it is less than a 1/4 of mile from my house. Unfortunately I am sorry they are living so close to a road. I am thinking they may have had their kits on the property across from the woods but they have to cross a street with cars to get there.
I am both happy and sad because it seems precarious and dangerous for them.
Oh my, life is tough for little wild animals.
Last night there was a full moon and on my way home from a friends house my car turned left instead of right....right being my house left being the foxes new den. I drove slowly and parked for a time hoping to see one of the foxes in the moon light but did not.
Since I have seen them twice now, I am sure the people in the house where I saw them coming from must surely be aware they are there. I hope they are animal people and not afraid of foxes and not interested in harming them in any way.
I will go back today just in hopes of seeing one again.
Thank you as always for reading my fox blog.
Remember: Always be kind to animals... particularly foxes!
Sandra
Well, I have decided that my fox family has found a new place to bring up their young this year as I have not seen any sign of them... until last week.
I was riding my bike just across the highway from my house and I saw a few little foxes run across a street in front of me. Just a glimpse, they stopped in the middle of the road, looked up at me and then disappeared into the woods.
Yesterday I just could not stop myself from going back to that spot and I walked along the tree line and discovered a worn path the same size as the paths they had made on my land when they lived here.
I was excited to find this path. It wasn't a long path so they were staying in a small confined space similar to the land behind my house.
So,after finding the path and hanging out for a bit I decided to ride my bike farther down the road and came back to the fox trail about 8 thirty am. I had just about given up seeing a fox but then up the hill I saw the silhouette of a fox with the sun shining through her coat. I was not that close but a car came by her and she stopped to let it pass as I rode my bike closer I could tell for sure it was an adult fox. I have a
feeling it is from my clan as it is less than a 1/4 of mile from my house. Unfortunately I am sorry they are living so close to a road. I am thinking they may have had their kits on the property across from the woods but they have to cross a street with cars to get there.
I am both happy and sad because it seems precarious and dangerous for them.
Oh my, life is tough for little wild animals.
Last night there was a full moon and on my way home from a friends house my car turned left instead of right....right being my house left being the foxes new den. I drove slowly and parked for a time hoping to see one of the foxes in the moon light but did not.
Since I have seen them twice now, I am sure the people in the house where I saw them coming from must surely be aware they are there. I hope they are animal people and not afraid of foxes and not interested in harming them in any way.
I will go back today just in hopes of seeing one again.
Thank you as always for reading my fox blog.
Remember: Always be kind to animals... particularly foxes!
Sandra
March 1, 2011
Where Have All the Foxes Gone?
March 1st 2011
Hello Fox watchers.
Well, I am going through gray fox withdrawal. I haven't seen any foxes in three weeks and I really really miss them.
I still put food in their little bowls every morning before 7 outside by their tree but only one raccoon and the crows come and eat the food later in the day.
I saw Shyanne last, Jarhead's mother. It was at 10:30am February 8th. Before that I saw her on Feb 1st at about the same time of day. I just happened to look out the window and there she was down below so I ran out to greet her.
We always do a little dance around each other, as I try to determine what she wants and have a little chat with our eyes. I know she knows me and I like to think when she comes she is coming to see me and not just for a treat.
I know this to be a fact as this time when I saw her she wasn't that interested in eating when I gave her the food. In fact, I brought her out a special treat in a bowl and put it by her tree. I watched her nibble on it for a while but then I left her alone, thinking she would feel more relaxed eating if I weren't right there.
I went up stairs and watched her down below but within a few minutes she stopped eating and began walking away, leaving most of the food behind, so I ran outside to see if I could see where she was going.
I was able to watch her as she went to the edge of the woods. I called to her and she looked back at me for several seconds, then she turn and disappeared into the thicket of forest behind my home. That was the last time I saw her or any foxes at all.
In February, most vixen are pregnant and give birth in March. Shyanne did not look like she was "with fox" . Also, she was not with a mate.
My mother from last years litter has disappeared too.
My guess is that Shyanne was not pregnant and did not need a den to give birth so she is roaming. Maybe she will find a new mate.
If you haven't read any of my blogs or watched any of my fox videos I recommend that you do. You see, I think my connection with the foxes was quite an special and unusual occurance.
If you love animals, I think they know that.
A few days ago, I combed the 10 acres of woods around me looking for worn paths and fox holes.
I must have come across over a dozen fox holes but all covered with leaves and branches from fallen trees indicating of course, they were abandoned.
At any rate I will continue to look out my window ... a 100 times a day just
in the hopes of catching a glimpse of them again.
Truthfully, Fox watchers, In all my born days I have never experienced anything that has touched me so profoundly.
Like I have said before , once you see a fox with your own eyes... you will want a chance to see another. I had nine foxes living less than 50 feet from my back door and it was comforting to me to know they were there. Right there.
Near me.
Maybe they will come back in the spring.
I'll let you know.
Sandra
Hello Fox watchers.
Well, I am going through gray fox withdrawal. I haven't seen any foxes in three weeks and I really really miss them.
I still put food in their little bowls every morning before 7 outside by their tree but only one raccoon and the crows come and eat the food later in the day.
I saw Shyanne last, Jarhead's mother. It was at 10:30am February 8th. Before that I saw her on Feb 1st at about the same time of day. I just happened to look out the window and there she was down below so I ran out to greet her.
We always do a little dance around each other, as I try to determine what she wants and have a little chat with our eyes. I know she knows me and I like to think when she comes she is coming to see me and not just for a treat.
I know this to be a fact as this time when I saw her she wasn't that interested in eating when I gave her the food. In fact, I brought her out a special treat in a bowl and put it by her tree. I watched her nibble on it for a while but then I left her alone, thinking she would feel more relaxed eating if I weren't right there.
I went up stairs and watched her down below but within a few minutes she stopped eating and began walking away, leaving most of the food behind, so I ran outside to see if I could see where she was going.
I was able to watch her as she went to the edge of the woods. I called to her and she looked back at me for several seconds, then she turn and disappeared into the thicket of forest behind my home. That was the last time I saw her or any foxes at all.
In February, most vixen are pregnant and give birth in March. Shyanne did not look like she was "with fox" . Also, she was not with a mate.
My mother from last years litter has disappeared too.
My guess is that Shyanne was not pregnant and did not need a den to give birth so she is roaming. Maybe she will find a new mate.
If you haven't read any of my blogs or watched any of my fox videos I recommend that you do. You see, I think my connection with the foxes was quite an special and unusual occurance.
If you love animals, I think they know that.
A few days ago, I combed the 10 acres of woods around me looking for worn paths and fox holes.
I must have come across over a dozen fox holes but all covered with leaves and branches from fallen trees indicating of course, they were abandoned.
At any rate I will continue to look out my window ... a 100 times a day just
in the hopes of catching a glimpse of them again.
Truthfully, Fox watchers, In all my born days I have never experienced anything that has touched me so profoundly.
Like I have said before , once you see a fox with your own eyes... you will want a chance to see another. I had nine foxes living less than 50 feet from my back door and it was comforting to me to know they were there. Right there.
Near me.
Maybe they will come back in the spring.
I'll let you know.
Sandra
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