Saxonville Fox Den April Summary

This is a summary of what happened to the fox den since the last post:

On March 27th, I set two trail cameras in Saxonville:

 the first one at the den that the fox family had been active around all winter, featured in these posts:

December - First Images Of Foxes At Den

https://framinghamwildlifeblog.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-red-fox-den-december-17.html

January - First Videos

https://framinghamwildlifeblog.blogspot.com/2022/01/the-fox-den-january-update-january-4th.html

February - Gestation

https://framinghamwildlifeblog.blogspot.com/2022/02/fox-parents-prepare-for-birth-trail-cam.html

 and the second one was placed at their original den, used back in 2020, around the beginning of Covid-19.

the results of that set were collected on March 30th:

https://framinghamwildlifeblog.blogspot.com/2022/03/mother-fox-feeding-her-kits-trail.html

...That post was special because it gave us a glimpse of the kits (baby foxes). They are seen nursing from their mother and wrestling each other.

The first set's videos have been mostly deleted and lost, so I wont do a post on that. 

I started walking a new route to school: every day, instead of walking through Copeland, and lowther street, I would walk all the way to Johnson St. Now that I have the tamron lens, I can shoot them (camera, not gun) in higher quality. I do still need to figure out somethings like exposure, which is the mistake I made the next time I saw them...                             Its so dark you can barely see the kit! 

... A few days later, though, and I got it right. I watched the kits play tug of war with what looked like a muskrat or some other small brown mammal. Me and others have started finding evidence that they have started eating solid foods, for example, a rabbit carcass was apparently found on the mound.

It is not difficult to get close to the kits, because they have learned to avoid humans. At first they had no reaction when teenagers would walk right up to the den, but now they will vanish if a twig snaps across the river. This day, though, I was quiet, and was able to really close the distance. Some of them went underground, but some just froze and stared straight at me...

I noticed that they used to be grey and fluffy, but now they are undergoing their first molt. Their grey-brown fur that helped them heat their newborn bodies while the parents were away was now useless. They need the familiar orange coat that helps them stalk prey. 

I never saw the kits from the time of this photo until the end of April.