{"id":11501,"date":"2013-01-15T06:36:26","date_gmt":"2013-01-15T13:36:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=11501"},"modified":"2013-01-15T06:36:26","modified_gmt":"2013-01-15T13:36:26","slug":"red-fox-kits-at-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2013\/01\/15\/red-fox-kits-at-play\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Fox Kits At Play"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ok,\u00a0here it is only the middle of January and I’ve already had my fill of frigid temperatures, snow and inversions.\u00a0 This post is my temporary escape from it all – to spring green, warm temperatures and cute animal babies.<\/p>\n

In May of 2010 I found a den of Red Fox Kits at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.\u00a0 The den was only about 15′ from the road edge and I never left my pickup or the road\u00a0while photographing the youngsters.\u00a0 Some of the images here (there are lots of them) have technical issues of\u00a0composition and light angle\u00a0but hey, rambunctious fox kits are a challenge to photograph.\u00a0 At least that’s my excuse…<\/p>\n

The photography was frenetic.\u00a0 I used three different cameras and lenses (500mm with and without tc, 100-400 zoom and 17-85 zoom).\u00a0 I missed a lot of interesting shots while switching gear – fun and frustrating at the same time.<\/p>\n

I’m leaving out camera exif data this time – just too much work and I don’t have the time this morning.\u00a0 Sorry Dwynn…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"red<\/p>\n

At first there was a single kit out of the den.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"red<\/p>\n

Then there were two.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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\"red<\/p>\n

Three.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

\"red<\/p>\n

And finally, four – you can see the top of the head of the fourth one as it emerges from the den.\u00a0 This is the only shot I kept that included all four kits.\u00a0 These youngsters aren’t as red as\u00a0one might expect because they were covered in gray dust from playing in the dirt and crawling through the den.\u00a0 I like the almost lynx-like\u00a0appearance of the kit at the back.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"red<\/p>\n

They were very curious about my big red pickup (I had a bright red Toyota at the time)\u00a0and the clicking\u00a0sounds coming from the two strange creatures inside.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"red<\/p>\n

One of them was particularly playful with us, sometimes play-charging my pickup…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"red<\/p>\n

and other times stalking it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"red<\/p>\n

They would sometimes just sit and watch us.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"red<\/p>\n

More often than not they had grass, or a stick or something<\/em> in their mouths from their curious play.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"red<\/p>\n

Even when taking a brief rest they were usually mouthing something.\u00a0 Anyone who has lived with a puppy is all too familiar with the behavior.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"red<\/p>\n

They would occasionally hide in the grasses and then pop up for a look.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"red<\/p>\n

But mostly they romped with each other…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"red<\/p>\n

and wrestled…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"red<\/p>\n

and wrestled some more.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"red<\/p>\n

They were so entertaining I could have watched them play for hours but what a challenge it was to photograph the very fast action with the angle of light\u00a0I had to deal with.<\/p>\n

Sadly, I suspect these\u00a0youngsters didn’t have much\u00a0of a future.\u00a0 It’s my understanding that National Wildlife Refuges practice predator control, Bear River included.\u00a0 I never\u00a0found these kits again.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ok,\u00a0here it is only the middle of January and I’ve already had my fill of frigid temperatures, snow and inversions.\u00a0 This post is my temporary escape from it all – to spring green, warm temperatures and cute animal babies. In May of 2010 I found a den of Red Fox Kits at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.\u00a0 The den was only about 15′ from the road edge and I never left my pickup or the road\u00a0while photographing the youngsters.\u00a0 Some of the images here (there are lots of them) have technical issues of\u00a0composition and light angle\u00a0but hey, rambunctious fox kits are a challenge to photograph.\u00a0 At least that’s my excuse… The photography was frenetic.\u00a0 I used three different cameras and lenses (500mm with and without tc, 100-400 zoom and 17-85 zoom).\u00a0 I missed a lot of interesting shots while switching gear – fun and frustrating at the same time. I’m leaving out camera exif data this time – just too much work and I don’t have the time this morning.\u00a0 Sorry Dwynn…   At first there was a single kit out of the den.     Then there were two.     Three.     And finally, four – you can see the top of the head of the fourth one as it emerges from the den.\u00a0 This is the only shot I kept that included all four kits.\u00a0 These youngsters aren’t as red as\u00a0one might expect because they were covered in gray dust from playing in the dirt and crawling through the den.\u00a0 I…<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[338,334,13,1148],"tags":[49,470,999,1150,262,1149],"class_list":["post-11501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge-favorite-locations","category-birds","category-mammals","category-red-foxes","tag-bear-river-migratory-bird-refuge","tag-kit","tag-play","tag-predator-control","tag-red-fox","tag-vulpes-vulpes"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-2Zv","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11501\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}