A Surprise Evening Visitor

This evening, we had a surprise visitor.  Sheila and I were in our new pergola in the backyard just before dinnertime and I noticed a gray fox just on the other side of our horseshoe pits just standing there watching me from about 40 feet away.  

Sheila couldn't see him from where she was sitting so I was quietly saying, "fox...  fox...  fox..." while staring at our visitor.  I was careful not to move because I didn't want to startle her and have her run off immediately.  At first Sheila thought I was cursing (I was working on a tabletop heater at the time so I could have been cursing if something was going according to plan) but she quickly realized I was saying "fox".  She stood up and slowly walked to where she could catch a glimpse of our little visitor. 

I thought for sure that this fox would dart off when Sheila came into view but she didn't...  she simply stood there, about 40 feet away, looking back at us.  We clearly were watching each other but it didn't seem to faze the fox.  She just kept watching us, almost nonchalantly.  

The fox moved to another location in our backyard and continued to watch.  She would move to a few locations, almost confidently, over the next few minutes but continued watching us.  She eventually sat down in the sun while looking at us.  It was at this point that I decided I should go inside to retrieve one of my cameras.  

Whenever this happens...  wildlife appears then I go inside to retrieve a camera...  the wildlife is always gone when I come back outside so I wasn't too confident this fox would be anywhere in sight when I returned back outside but if I didn't go get a camera I would regret it.  I was pleasantly surprised when she was still in our backyard when I returned with a camera in hand.  

I made a few very quick but, unfortunately, haphazard adjustments to settings (but still missed two key settings) since it was dark outside the last time I used my camera.  Now it was sunny out so I would need drastically different settings.  I missed changing my shutter speed which resulted in a bunch of motion blurred photos but I did manage to capture a couple of really nice shots nevertheless.  I also missed changing the focus area which resulted in focus landing on foreground objects.

It would have been great if she was still sitting in the sun when I returned with my camera.  The sun was perfectly illuminating her face when I went inside to grab my camera.  That would have made for a great shot.  Unfortunately, she was now standing in the shade but she allowed me to get within about 30 feet of her so I could capture a few photos.  

Two things stuck out as a bit odd to me.  First, this fox is almost always darting through our yard, taking the same exact path, at around 2am every night.  Now it was daylight.  This was highly unusual.  The other thing I felt was a bit odd is that she is clearly nursing and she was a bit too close for comfort...  a bit too brazen.  Hmmm...  maybe it has been her mate that has been darting through the yard at 2am?  Her brazenness and interest in us made me wonder if she wanted something from us...  food...  attention for her kits...  or something else.  She wasn't acting skittish at all.  She was cautious but did allow me to approach much more closely than I expected.  

After I captured the above photo, she disappeared but I suspect she'll be back.  

Gray foxes are very adept at climbing trees unlike red foxes.  If I remember correctly, their leg joints can rotate a bit so they can easily climb trees using their long claws.  They only live about six to eight years in the wild so they have a very short lifespan.  They spend a lot of time in trees and can actually easily jump from tree to tree.  

Hopefully this fox will be back with her kits sometime soon.  That would make for some nice photos too!