Category: foxes (honorary cats)

Readers’ wildlife photos

November 4, 2014 • 7:19 am

Reader Charles Spotts sent a bunch of photos, and I’ve picked out as the best some birds and Honorary Cats™. His notes:

Like other of your readers I’m intrigued by wildlife and in my particular case, hummingbirds. I have a well attended feeder that attracts mostly Anna’s hummingbirds (Calypte anna) although I also may see rufous hummingbirds (Selasphorus rufus) and black-chinned hummingbirds (Archilochus alexandri) from time to time in the summer. There seems to be a small group (in my area) of year round Anna’s hummingbirds. I have attached several photos of Anna’s. I try to catch them in flight but my success ratio is very low. Nevertheless, since I take so many photos, I have quite a few that I consider “good” and which may be up to your standards for sharing. I most often use a 300mm lens from about 10 feet away shooting with ISO 1600 (Nikon equipment)!

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I also see Columbian Blacktail Deer (Odocoileus hemionus) on a regular basis as they wander through the yard, and sometimes skunks (Mephitis mephitis) and gray foxes (Urocyon cinereoargenteus). Last spring I spotted a female fox and her cub at the old house next door and managed to get a good shot of the mom, but couldn’t get one of the (very timid) cub.

Notice the cub behind mom:

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And from Stephen Barnard in Idaho:

A Belted Kingfisher  (Megaceryle alcyon), a herd of Mule Deer (Odocoileus hemionus), and a Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos).

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Fox noms, damages, and absconds with GoPro camera

July 23, 2014 • 11:58 am

This video shows two things:

1. These cameras are pretty indestructible.

2. This fox’s teeth are in good shape.

The backstory from GrindTV:

You could say that Jonathan VanBallenberghe was outfoxed by the critter he was trying to videotape recently during an expedition to Round Island, Alaska.

VanBallenberghe was part of a group from the University of Alaska, capturing footage to showcase the wildlife of Round Island, which is at the northern end of Bristol Bay. He had set his camera on the ground, hoping for a low-angle closeup of a red fox approaching on the trail.

But the fox had its own idea. It decided to run off with the camera, and use the expensive device as a chew toy.

“My friends were photographing and filming sea lions when I spotted this fox come along,” VanBallenberghe states in the YouTube video description. “So I stupidly put my GoPro on the ground in hopes of getting a closeup. When the fox ran off, I thought I’d never see my camera again.”

Viewers can see the fox grab the camera, and the inside of the critter’s mouth as it gnaws on the unit with incredibly sharp and pointy teeth.

After several minutes of looking, VanBallenberghe and a friend locate the camera, with its face plate torn and the lens area badly damaged.

“It turns on and records, but the lens is messed up and I’ll need to have it repaired,” VanBallenberghe states. “I’m glad the fox itself didn’t get hurt or swallow anything that could have harmed it.”

The film project director told the Alaska Dispatch that the 30 or so red foxes on Round Island enjoy an ample food supply, thanks to an abundance of voles and other small animals.

Perhaps out of boredom, they sometimes kill voles without eating them, and are “used to going after little things just for entertainment.”

The GoPro is a little think with a blinking red light. In hindsight VanBallenberghe should have known better. But he did retrieve his camera, and some very unique footage.

“I don’t care really,” he said of the damaged camera. “I’m excited to have something different.”

h/t: Scott