Tag: red fox

Coyote, Wolf

Coyotes and Wolves, Yellowstone National Park

Photo of a coyote pausing above the Gardner River.
Still Sporting a Winter Coat

I have hardly seen any coyotes or wolves this spring.  Today was a good start in correcting that.  The first thing I saw to photograph was a pair of coyotes moving down from the Mammoth area toward the Gardner River below.

Photo of a wolf pausing near Blacktail Ponds.
Blacktail Pack Wolf

Not long after that I saw two wolves crossing the Blacktail Ponds area and headed my way.  Both wore collars.  Unfortunately, they changed direction and this photo is as close as I got to either of them.    As of December 2012, there were only 79 wolves in the park.   The highest count was 171 in 2007.  Ten wolves which lived in Yellowstone most of the time were shot in the first hunting seasons outside the park.  Most were shot within a mile or two of the park.  Eight of the ten were wearing radio collars.  Anyone with radio telemetry can now find wolves with the radio telemetry and shoot them when they leave the park which it seems people are doing.

While I haven’t seen many coyotes or wolves, I have seen quite a few red foxes which I used to hardly ever see.

Badger, Red Fox

The Last Week in May of 2013, Yellowstone National Park

Photo of red fox kits playing at den site.
Red Fox Kits at Play

I arrived in Yellowstone on Sunday afternoon, May 26.  The red fox den near the Yellowstone Picnic Area was the talk of the park.  Hundreds of people came to see the foxes.  The den was only 60 yards from the nearest picnic table.  The Park Service put up signs and cones to keep people 50 yards from the den.  Seeing the parents all day long was great, but the best times were when they let the kits out to play.

I had gotten some good fox kit photos last year so I wasn’t as inclined as some to watch and photograph the foxes all day long as many people were.  I would stop by once or twice a day to see what was happening.  As it turned out, I learned that on  Thursday that just before I arrived a badger and the vixen started fighting some distance up the road and the fight continued to the den.  Many people photographed the fight at the den entrance.  At this time the kits were in the den.  I learned that when the badger got in the hole one kit ran out of the den entrance and the other got out an escape hole.  The foxes had another den about 50 yards away and the the parents rounded up the kits and put them there.  The badger never came out that day.  It is likely that the vixen had stored food in the den and the badger presumably ate it.  One of the parents was usually at the den entrance waiting for the badger to come out.

Photo of a badger moving from the main den to the second den where the fox kits are hidden.
Badger moves from the main den to the other new den.

Everyone came back at the crack of dawn Friday morning.  On Friday afternoon at about 5:00 p.m. the badger emerged from the den.  Neither fox was around, which was very unusual.  The badger went immediately to the other den and entered.  I don’t know if it had been to the other den before or it followed a scent trail.  When the mother returned she went to the new den site.  The badger had back-filled it and the vixen dug and dug, but the badger was able to fill it much faster than the vixen could dig.  The vixen bided her time outside the new den site.  I learned that the badger came out for a short time Saturday and there was another fight, but it was much shorter than the first fight and the badger went back into the new den.

There doesn’t seem to be any doubt but that the badger killed and ate the kits.

Another photographer told me that he talked to the NPS Ranger that had been there the day before and the Ranger told him that this pair of foxes has yet to successfully raise its kits.  I do remember hearing reports of foxes on the other side of  the picnic area last year, but I never saw them.  I think the photographer said that he was told the badger got the kits last year as well.

As I mentioned, I wasn’t there for the first fight.  (I missed the later one as well.)  Some people were there for the first fight though and they got good photos of it.  To see one person’s photos click here.

Another sad note is that the vixen that I photographed with her kits last May just outside the northeast entrance was hit by a car and killed.  Click here for my blog about her last year.  She left four kits.  One of them died, but someone is feeding the other kits.  But they have no one to teach them the secrets to living a long life as a fox.  Hopefully, it’s mostly in the genes.

Coyote, Grizzly Bear, Other Bird, Pronghorn

My 10 Favorite Wildlife Photos of 2012

About a year ago I posted a blog with my 10 favorite wildlife photos from 2011.  Here are my 10 favorites for 2012.  Most of this year’s photos are from Yellowstone.

Photo of a female red fox with her kits.
Mom and the Kids

Finding and photographing this red fox vixen and her two kits was the best part of my trip to Yellowstone last spring.

Photo of red fox kits at play.
Fox Kits at Play

Baby animals are usually photogenic and these two certainly were.

Photo of pringhorn doe nursing her fawn.
Feeding Time

While on the subject of baby animals, this doe pronghorn kept her two fawns right around the Roosevelt Arch for a week or more.  They stopped a lot of cars.

Photo of a young grizzly bear.
A Grizzly Daydreams

This grizzly bear spent several days in May on the slopes above Yellowstone’s Soda Butte Creek feeding on grass, roots and whatever other vegetative material grizzlies feed on in the spring.

Photo of a grizzly bear.
Sad Looking Young Grizzly

I spent a fair amount of time photographing this bear.  It often looked sad to me.  I think it was a young bear and perhaps it was its first spring without its mother.

Photo of a mountain bluebird on a sage plant.
Mountain Bluebird on Sage

I always see mountain bluebirds in Yellowstone in the spring, but until this past May I’ve never really had any good opportunities to photograph them.  They seem to be constantly on the move.  This May was different.  They hung around.

Photo of a sandhill crane standing in a patch of sage.
A sandhill crane hunts in the sage.

There are always some sandhill cranes in Yellowstone in the nesting season.  They usually tend to be far off though.  You often hear them calling before you even spot them.  I was lucky here.

Photo of a male yellow-headed blackbird singing for a mate.
Love-sick Yellow-headed Blackbird, Yellowstone National Park

I don’t recall  ever having seen a yellow-headed blackbird in Yellowstone before this spring.  This male was singing to attract a mate I assume.  I spotted him while driving the road to the Slough Creek Campground.

Photo of white-crowned sparrow.
White-crowned Sparrow, Point Reyes National Seashore

There are a lot of white-crowned sparrows in Point Reyes National Seashore in the winter.  This male saved what was otherwise an uneventful day.

Coyote, Point Reyes National Seashore

Photo of a coyote staring at the camera.
Coyote Portrait

The coyotes I see in the ranching areas of Point Reyes are pretty wild.   By that I mean they don’t stick around when they see a human.  This individual was different.  He was comfortable with my photographing him.  He may have previously lived in an area with heavy human recreation use.

Point Reyes is my local Yellowstone.  It has a wide variety of wildlife considering where it is located.  No bison or moose, but it has elk and deer.  No wolves or bears, but it has coyotes, bobcats, badgers and one or more mountain lions.  You’ll see elk as easily as in Yellowstone and deer more easily.   You’ll see coyotes as easily as in Yellowstone and bobcats much more easily.

Well, that’s it.  My 10 favorites for 2012.  If you’d like to see my 10 favorites for 2011 click here.

Red Fox

Red Fox Vixen and Kits, Yellowstone National Park

Photo of a female red fox with her kits.
Mom and the Kids

I almost always see red foxes in Yellowstone, but I’ve never gotten a good photo of one until this year.  When it rains it pours.  This year I saw and photographed several, including this vixen and her two kits.

I’ve read that red foxes usually produce four to seven kits.  Thus, these two may be what’s left of a larger litter.   I was fortunate to be able to observe them for a while.  One kit was very outgoing and the other was very shy.

Seeing baby animals is why I like to visit Yellowstone in the spring.  Bear cubs and bison calves will be the first thing you’ll see in May.  Elk calves, bighorn lambs and pronghorn fawns start to appear the first week in June.  Deer fawns appear later in June.

Photo of a gray fox.
Gray Fox or Red Fox?

I was looking at some of my fox photos from the trip and this one looked different.  I just did some checking and now realize this fox seems to be a gray fox.  Red foxes have very distinctive black stockings. This one doesn’t have them.    Plus its trunk is mostly gray.