Free Range Photography

There’s no way to know for sure if the two foxes who showed up in the exact same spot on a bank above the river are the same as the ones I saw a bit over a month ago, but it would be a pretty safe bet.

This was a coolish morning in mid-August, in contrast to the early July day when a rapidly rising temperature ominously predicted another day of over 100 degrees during the long heat wave we experienced then.

Their behavior was much the same, the first one who arrived settled in for a rest and a moment of basking in the sun. The second one arrived shortly after and went about some ear cleaning and grooming of the first before scuttling down the bank to do some digging. It was hard to tell the purpose of the digging, but I suspect some tiny creature’s den or burrow was being excavated, although I saw no signs of the hoped for prey.

After several minutes of digging, the second fox disappeared into the brush. The first one remained in her basking spot for awhile and then soundlessly disappeared as well.

Looking at the shapes of their faces and the overall size, I wondered if the one on the left was a female and the one on the right a male. I like the way their tails are positioned identically.

I try to position myself in a deep shadow with the sun at my back so that anything coming from across the river or downstream won’t likely see me as the sun is in their eyes. It was stunning to see the open eyes of this beautiful animal for just a moment in between long moments of squinting into the sun.