Anyone who knows me will tell you I love wildlife! Some of my happiest childhood memories are of going out with my Dad to the canal or the woods, and him telling me about the animals we would see. So you can imagine my excitement, tinged with disappointment, when my Mum sent me a text one day to tell me she had seen a fox in her back garden.
We knew there were foxes around her street. Infact, a few years ago I had driven along there late at night and had seen two small cubs run across the road in front of my car. But seeing one in the back garden was a first for any of us, despite my parents having lived there for over 40 years!
Fast forward a few weeks and I went down to the bottom of the garden to assess the pile of old fencing that my husband and I intended to burn for them. I heard rustling and looked up, expecting to see the neighbour’s cat. Instead, I found myself face to face with an adult fox!
With no camera to hand, not even my phone, I stood still. She stared at me, I stared at her. Then she turned and ran off. Then I noticed that a hole had been dug under the summerhouse. It would appear that the fox had set up home!
Sasha and I saw the vixen and two cubs in the garden a few weeks later, but after the none of us spotted the cubs again.
But despite many evenings camped out with my camera, I didn’t manage to get any footage of any of the family. The wily vixen seemed to know when I was watching, and came out when I had gone!
So my Mum decided to invest in a trail camera, so we could hopefully capture them unobtrusively, and observe their behaviour (and just how cute they are of course!).
The very first night we caught both cubs, and the vixen, in multiple video clips and stills! There is something so exciting abut opening up the sd card and spotting a little bundle of fur playing, in the garden you once played in 🙂
So I thought I’d share our family foxes with you all. I challenge you not to say “Awwwwwww!” out loud!
The trail camera that we captured the footage with can be found here.
For more information about foxes in Kent, including who to call if you find and injured fox and what to feed them if, like us, you are lucky enough to share space with them, please visit The Fox Project.
If you have photos of videos of the wildlife that lives in your garden I’d LOVE to see it! Please share them via my Facebook page or email me at kellyreevesphotography@mail.com. They may be shared in a later blog post!
Kelly.x