Cute Baby Fox Photos

There have been some great bird reports turning up on San Juan Island recently, including the second ever county sighting of a black-billed magpie and the first ever account of Lawrence's goldfinch. Even though they haven't hung around long enough for others to see, I was inspired to get out despite the blustery weather the other day to see what I could find. False Bay was pretty quiet except for a single black-bellied plover. At Panorama Marsh I heard my first Virginia rail on the island, and also my first warbling vireo (170) for the season. Along Cattle Point Road I also saw a pair of American goldfinches and a pair of western bluebirds (171).

The highlight of the day, however, was a stop by the fox den I found last week. All four kits were out and wrestling with each other, and in one priceless moment they all looked at me at the same time:

Prints of this photo available here

Here's another look at one of the brown kits:

Prints of this photo available here

There was a flurry of activity as mama fox came trotting in with a mouse. I love the motion captured in this image:

Prints of this photo available here

The short burst of activity ended when one of the black kits ran off into the den with the mouse. The other black kit followed mom around before she left again:

It was a pretty special encounter!

You can check out other baby fox photos from this den a little over week ago, as well as from the den I found in 2009 here and here.