FOXES OF THE CASA

I bet your dirty minds thought this would be about houseboys???

Lately I have been getting some great shots of the Usual Suspects around here. This weekend , I was actually relieved to have a weekend to myself, and didn't live in my square cuts for a change as we had rain off and on, so no Raven for me except for Saturday night. I noticed in the rain, it's a bird flash mob at the sill. But lately I have been all intrigued by the fox here. If they could be domesticated I would have one in a heart beat. They sort of remind me of myself, social, slick, can be mischievous and very curious. I think they are beautiful. I have always had one to my knowledge here at the Casa du Borghese, but this spring, Foxy had three pups. And have they been very active at night, which is why I have been up extremely late on the porch watching them. They can be seen during the day, but they are mostly nocturnal here. During the day they stick to mostly the edge of the woods.  But lately at night, they can get very close to me, and will even sit and watch me, or they will all be playing and chasing each other. It's great fun to watch, and I'm gratefully they let me witness them so close. While I don't think I'll ever be able to pet them, it's cool to see them,  and what their up to. Since they are always in the flower bed next to the porch, I have since named them Hosta, Ivy and Sage, since that is what is mostly planted there. But I wasn't sure why they are always in the flower bed?  I follow a lovely lady on Instagram who I featured before who has two foxes as pets. Juniper Foxx is the account.

Aren't you just melting????

 I reached out to her , who got back to me quite quickly. She said there are many reasons why foxes can find your garden so exciting and, while some are quite obvious, there may be things you were unaware of that encourage foxes to keep returning. Having an awareness of how and why foxes behave is incredibly important to successful fox deterrence,  or welcoming them, so even if you are not a fan of foxes, you will benefit by showing an interest in how they operate. There are many reasons and many things to attract fox, but we concluded they like the grounds here because there is a good water source with the stream and the cover of woods. At night it is also very quite here.  The said flower bed also has tall hosta and sage for cover, and fox like to be under cover when they can. But the big thing was did I feed birds?  She said fox are not picky eaters, and if you have a good quality bird feed mixture with nuts, fruit, fats, and larger seeds they will clean the ground of the fallen mixture. Who knew? She said it is not a good idea to give human food to foxes though, as they have very specific meat diet that include bone. Some human food can even make fox sick and even kill them. They must also learn to hunt. The said flower bed also most likely has moles and mice and earthworms they will eat.  She also asked if rail tracks were near me. Which through the woods there are tracks of the regional rail I take to Philadelphia. She said railway lines are an easy, low-risk way for a fox to navigate suburban areas.  Again who knew?  So the last three weeks, I did get some shots , but probably not the best. One has to move steady and slow but quick.

This is Foxy in the woods, not far from the tracks.

This shot was a zoom on two of the now juveniles from the gazebo here. Look at those faces!!!!!! They are definitely curious.

Another shot of one of the pups sleeping on a secluded cement slab.

This shot was taken from the boudoir window of mother Foxy almost in the main courtyard. Very rare to see her out of the wooded area so early in the day.

I'm not to good with night photos. I tried with my phone and digital camera to no avail to get better night pictures and this was the best I could capture.

Looking right at me!

The best shot was Sage. Sage has more white on him,  on the face and chest then the other two. He was sitting about four feet from me off the porch. I nice zoom in and he stayed seated.

I may be up to late and dragging the next day, but it has been worth it.