The fox has always been one of my favorite creatures. Known as clever little mischief makers, the cunning fox has thwarted man’s attempts to capture or cull for centuries.
“A fox is subtlety itself.” ~ Aristophanes, Greek Philosopher, 386 B.C.
Native Americans considered the fox as an irreverent trickster, a benevolent character, and associated them with intelligence and wisdom.
The people of Northern-Eastern China have been praying to Fox Spirits since ancient times. Almost every village in that region of China has a Spirit Shrine to worship the fox.
Then there was fox hunting in Great Britain, where the highbrow British society elites would don their red coats and silly riding helmets, jump on their horses and chase foxes around with large packs of barking hounds. They called this “sport”. They knew that without hounds, they had no chance to catch the elusive fox. Thankfully, the fox hunts were outlawed in 2005.
The early Americans had a different attitude towards the fox as their attempts to “keep the fox out of the hen house” failed time and again.
“The cunning of the fox is as murderous as the violence of the wolf.” ~ Thomas Paine
The theme of intelligence and cunning is the common thread in fox mythology down through time.
Thousands of years later the crafty little fox is still here creating his mischief and raiding hen houses, yet I had never seen one in the wild. Wildlife photography is a little outside of what I have typically done. Up until now, I’ve focused on landscape, sunset, or mountain photography, you know,… things that sit still. Wildlife photography presents a unique challenge: their senses are a magnitude greater than ours, and they move silently through their environment. Not only do you have to find them, but you also need to catch them in the right light to get a good picture before they disappear back into the forest.
So with the difficult task of finding and photographing a fox in the wild, I hit the road for the mountain town of McCall on the shores of Payette Lake in central Idaho.
Through research, I knew that foxes were occasionally seen in the area around McCall, but I thought my chances of spotting one of these elusive, beautiful creatures were slim. My schedule allowed for three days and on the afternoon of the 3rd day, as I was slowly working my way through the game trails of the Payette National Forest, I spotted this gorgeous cross fox.
You must look closely. Unless you are looking for him, and sometimes even if you are, you would walk right by.
With a huge burst of excitement and a rush of adrenaline, I ducked down and took a moment to calm myself. I now understand what hunters mean by “buck fever”. When I looked again, he was still there and miraculously, had not seen or heard me. I dropped my pack and slowly started working my way up behind him as quietly as possible. I got to within 40 feet when he sat up and looked right at me. At that point, I thought the gig was up, but he didn’t run, he laid back down?!
Right after I took this picture my camera flashed the dreaded “Dead Battery” message. My spare batteries were back down the hill in my pack. Rookie mistake! #%*&$&#!. I quietly worked my way back down to my pack knowing that the fox had assuredly made a run for it but when I looked back up the hill, to my surprise, he was still there.
After changing my battery, I put my pack on and started working my way to the right around the base of his hill. The plan was to come up in front of him to get a good shot. When I approached the rock that I thought he was on he was nowhere in sight. I was so grateful I had seen one and I would have been happy if it had ended right then. I worked my way up the hill a little further and turned around to see the fox sleeping on another rock 20 feet from where I had previously been.
Again, I dropped my pack and worked my way down the hill. At one point he looked up and I froze.
The look on his face says “is this guy real or am I dreaming.”
I finally worked my way around to where I wanted to be with the sun on his face and the Fall colors at his back and took this picture.
This was the shot I was after. What a beautiful fox!
He was obviously a groggy, tired little fox. After posing for this picture, he tucked his nose back into his body and went back to sleep.
He knew that I was no threat.
Climbing back to the top of the hill I stopped to watch the little fox sleep. I probably took 15-20 pictures, but I stayed there for a long time. When you go to the effort to put yourself in this position and it works out, you don’t want the moment to end. Setting my camera down I just stayed there, in the presence of this fox, surrounded by the silence of the woods and the stunning fall colors, hanging onto this experience as long as I could.
Just as I was starting to pack up to leave, the fox started to stir and sat up with a yawn.
After a quick stretch, the fox stepped off his rock and something in the bushes immediately grabbed his attention.
When he struck the pose below, I realized he was going to do a “fox pounce”!
In a bit of a panic, I fumbled to increase my shutter speed to try to freeze the fox in midair but as you can see below, I was waving my camera all over in my excitement.
Checking the pictures soon afterward I knew I had blown the shot, but I couldn’t be angry or disappointed. Just to be in the position to see this was so wonderful. I almost wish I would have put my camera down and watched.
To paraphrase Sean Penn’s character, Sean O’Connell, in the movie Walter Mitty, “sometimes you don’t take the picture, sometimes you just want to stay right there, in the moment. “…. It was amazing.
With that, the little fox trotted off across a log and disappeared behind a tree to undoubtedly make some mischief or raid a hen house…
Godspeed little fox.
BR
@BRImages, all rights reserved