Foxes in the Back Yard

 My office overlooks the back yard.  One window has the screen removed, and the monster telephoto lens is mounted on a tripod aimed at the bird feeder.  Sometimes it captures other sights.

The day after Valentine's Day I was up early in the dark, "reading the paper" on the computer.  Funny how that's what I say, even when we have not gotten a paper paper for years, since it never arrive at anything like on time, and when I had to go to work, I would go out three or more times and never have a paper before I had to leave.  On this day, for some reason I opened the shades even though it was still almost pitch black.

When what to my wondering eyes should appear but a fox regally surveying his realm from the stump of our apricot tree (from which we never got more than a handful of bug-chomped apricots).  The Nikons would not auto-focus in the dark, and manual focus was barely better.  Expecting the fox to rapidly move on, this is what the Pixel produced, and you would not believe that it really was still night as far as the Nikons are concerned.  This was 7 AM, right around sunrise.

Max zoom with the Pixel, still night but very acceptable quality.

This is 20 minutes later, and the fox was slowly exploring the back yard.  Already far longer than I have ever photographed foxes; normally it is just a quick trot through the yard.

First usable picture from the Nikons.  This is the smaller camera with  shorter telephoto, from one of three other downstair windows facing the back yard (note the different angle on the shed), all with screens up.

The long telephoto on the trip aimed at the bird feeder.  The fox has lunch in his mouth.  My spotter saw the approach towards us, but I only captured the move back toward the alley.

Peering out from under the apricot tree.  It came down while we were in Venice, but was kept within the open part of the yard.  We had left it up for woodpeckers and hawks and good photos.

There was actually a second fox present for a large part of the encounter; this photo was almost an hour after the first picture.  Unfortunately the second fox was mostly on the side of shed now almost completely blocked by the new east raspberry garden.  I did see that fox sail over the fence to the neighbor's yard from a standing high jump, and then hunker down under the tree.  Initially in the shade, we could not tell it was a fox until the sun came up and there was motion.  This is back to the Pixel, and the Nikons did not want to focus through the fence and vegetation.

Heron and Reflection

 

First snow in two years

 

And the snow did not stick around very long......