I’ve seen a lot more red foxes in my travels throughout the United States than I have gray foxes — not that the latter are particularly rare. I did have a nice little encounter in Zion National Park in Utah one morning. This gray fox was moving quickly, but staying in one general area, allowing me to grab several shots. In this particular image, you can see the legs of a grazing elk that was suddenly in the background when the fox climbed on top of that fallen tree trunk. Too bad I didn’t have a wider lens to capture both animals. By the time I zoomed out to the wide end of my 200-400mm and backed up, the fox had moved on. Nikon D800 with Nikkor 200-400mm lens (at 400mm) ISO 3200, f/4 at 1/160th of a second
——- Tall and tan
——- And young and lovely
——- The girl from Zion
——- Goes walking
——- And when she walks
——- We say Ah…
——- She swings and sways
——- So gentle but she doesn’t
——- See me , never sees me .
Beautiful! Hard to get them in any kind of daylight as they’re mostly nocturnal. They are known to be common in eastern MA, like the Cape Cod area. But, recently, they’ve been appearing in central and western MA. I hope it continues.
We had an interesting encounter with a gray fox. My wife highlights this for our Western Maine Audubon Spring 2024 (circulation about 200)
While I took a picture of the kit fox at the time (2o yrs ago, it was with a film camera and the image long lost to me. I wonder if I could use your nice picture of a gray fox in our newsletter to highlight our encounter.
For your interest the relevant part of her President’s Column is as follows: One spring morning I saw a mother gray fox with her 2 kits right outside the house near a bird feeder. The next day at 3:00 o’clock one of the kits came back, alone, cleaned up under the feeder, walked around the house to the other feeder for more food, hung around for a while and moved on. I had taken a 6 week leave from work so I was home and was privileged to watch my little friend come nearly daily, at the same time, for about a month. Initially he/she startled when I watched through a glass door but finally decided I was OK and I could quietly go outside, keeping my distance. One day he had a confrontation with a flock of turkeys which after dancing back and forth flew up into a tree. The fox sat down looking quite puzzled. Maybe he was thinking how does one fly? One day I watched him chase and catch a red squirrel. Good, I thought, he’s going to survive. No more need for bird food. That was the last time I saw that exquisitely beautiful juvenile gray fox.
Many thanks for your consideration – a photo credit will certainly be listed.
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I’ve seen a lot more red foxes in my travels throughout the United States than I have gray foxes — not that the latter are particularly rare. I did have a nice little encounter in Zion National Park in Utah one morning. This gray fox was moving quickly, but staying in one general area, allowing me to grab several shots. In this particular image, you can see the legs of a grazing elk that was suddenly in the background when the fox climbed on top of that fallen tree trunk. Too bad I didn’t have a wider lens to capture both animals. By the time I zoomed out to the wide end of my 200-400mm and backed up, the fox had moved on.
Wow, what a beauty! I expected the fox to be varying shades of grey but I wasn’t expecting to see the grey fading to brindle. Very nice, Sean!
What a beautiful creature. Great shot Crane!
Boy that fox is a beauty. Thanks for pointing out the legs of the elk, I would had missed it being the fox captivate’s the picture.
Sean it was a great Shot anyway, I think he took a pose for you
Aunt Sue
——- Tall and tan
——- And young and lovely
——- The girl from Zion
——- Goes walking
——- And when she walks
——- We say Ah…
——- She swings and sways
——- So gentle but she doesn’t
——- See me , never sees me .
Beautiful! Hard to get them in any kind of daylight as they’re mostly nocturnal. They are known to be common in eastern MA, like the Cape Cod area. But, recently, they’ve been appearing in central and western MA. I hope it continues.
No such thing as too many foxes or fox encounters.
We had an interesting encounter with a gray fox. My wife highlights this for our Western Maine Audubon Spring 2024 (circulation about 200)
While I took a picture of the kit fox at the time (2o yrs ago, it was with a film camera and the image long lost to me. I wonder if I could use your nice picture of a gray fox in our newsletter to highlight our encounter.
For your interest the relevant part of her President’s Column is as follows: One spring morning I saw a mother gray fox with her 2 kits right outside the house near a bird feeder. The next day at 3:00 o’clock one of the kits came back, alone, cleaned up under the feeder, walked around the house to the other feeder for more food, hung around for a while and moved on. I had taken a 6 week leave from work so I was home and was privileged to watch my little friend come nearly daily, at the same time, for about a month. Initially he/she startled when I watched through a glass door but finally decided I was OK and I could quietly go outside, keeping my distance. One day he had a confrontation with a flock of turkeys which after dancing back and forth flew up into a tree. The fox sat down looking quite puzzled. Maybe he was thinking how does one fly? One day I watched him chase and catch a red squirrel. Good, I thought, he’s going to survive. No more need for bird food. That was the last time I saw that exquisitely beautiful juvenile gray fox.
Many thanks for your consideration – a photo credit will certainly be listed.
Hi Burt, yes that’s fine. Thanks for asking. Nice story.