Today’s blog is brought to you by wildlife and conservation photographer Deirdre Denali.
When you think of a cold spring morning in the mountains, you think of pretty much winter, right? Right. Our springs are snowy and cold and often times it’s that wet cold that’ll get deep into your bones. The highs don’t get very high and the lows stay rather low. Welcome to fox season.
In December and February, red foxes begin the mating process and by March, April and May, kits are being born in the den mom and dad fox got ready for this wonderful event. If you’ve never seen a new fox kit, don’t worry. I am here to show you how perfect they are.
This fox family has dens near our property and I made it my mission to gain some of their trust (via ethical and responsible ways) in order to document them for a full year. I wanted to get to the point where they’d pretty much ignore me, and I would be able to watch them living life unbothered.
After a handful of months, I had gained dad fox’s trust enough to sit near the dens and make photos. And after about a month of this, dearest dad introduced me to the kits. Magic has ensued ever since.
What this whole process tends to look like is sitting in the cold and dark for hours, waiting for dad to get back to the dens with food for mom fox and the kits. Some days, he doesn’t show up before I need to leave. Sometimes, he is around and so active with the kits when it’s too dark to make photos and then he leaves and doesn’t come back. Creating gorgeous fox imagery is no easy feat.
A fantastic thing that’s allowed me to keep up this frigid and long project is Cold Case Gear. I know my camera batteries will not die and I know my memory cards won’t be damaged by severe temperatures. Even on mornings that start below zero and don’t get much warmer!
