Photographing Foxes - Tips?
- Thread starter TeeDee
- Start date
this time of year your best chances are to lay up outside an active den or as you say, bait 'n' wait
Give your bait station a couple of days to be discovered before sitting out for the night though. A trial cam can save a lot of wasted time
Give your bait station a couple of days to be discovered before sitting out for the night though. A trial cam can save a lot of wasted time
I set a trailcam from time to time in my bit of woodland. It's supposed to have very dark infra-red night "flash" but the fox(es) always seem(s) very aware / suspicious of the camera when I check the videos. Maybe it's my scent? But the camera's left there for many days at a time so much scent should go. If you go down the trailcam route maybe having one cam up higher, a couple of metres or so, looking down on the one at fox height may work?
Bait is also good. I pinned some old mutton to the ground to see what would come. The camera detected the fox circling around checking it it out (and corvids snacking). Next time the camera was triggered no bait and no fox were to be seen!
Bait is also good. I pinned some old mutton to the ground to see what would come. The camera detected the fox circling around checking it it out (and corvids snacking). Next time the camera was triggered no bait and no fox were to be seen!
Come and sit in my kitchen, every night we have at least 3 foxes on the shared lawn out front - my wife is scared they'll eat our dog! between them they usually have 4-5 cubs each year, its a pain coming home in the early hours as they are usually play fighting in the middle of the road and refuse to move
I never had cubs here that I saw, you are very lucky, but the foxes and the badgers both visited to guzzle the nuts and wireworms I put out for them. Just do it regularly and they'll keep coming back. The countryside rangers told me not to continue doing it ad infinitum because they'd come to rely on the food instead of it just being an extra.
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=124348
Now the quiet area over the burn has a huge great wall and 90 flats on it
No badgers, very few deer and only one fox running down the street.
M
http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=124348
Now the quiet area over the burn has a huge great wall and 90 flats on it
No badgers, very few deer and only one fox running down the street.
M
I'm not a wild life photographer by any stretch of the imagination, but photographing the 'urban' or town Foxes is a different game to catching their country cousins on camera.
Both will respond to bait but..town Fox will generally ignore your scent unless you're too close to the bait, but in the woods you will have more success if you consider and act on wind direction. If you know where their Earth is you can lay your bait and then get down wind of Earth/bait.
If you can, get off the ground, you don't need to get too high but dogs/ Foxes work to air and ground scents, getting up higher, even on a fallen tree will help.
I was on this fallen trunk so she picked up my scent slightly later than she normally would because I was down wind and slightly higher, also, she hadn't crossed the ground track I'd left going to the tree so I'd left no ground scent.
They were taken from one of my regular perches, not high, just downwind and keeping still (even when you think nothing is about)... A split Hornbeam I use as a seat.
Sometimes the unexpected occurs...camped in the wood I heard the squeaks and growls of Fox Cubs scrapping in the nearby Ferns and just managed to get them in the fast fading daylight.
Brother and sister I believe...
People more knowledgeable than me about animal behaviour may not agree, but it's possible that the Vixen in my photo very likely knows my scent. I sleep in the wood 6 or 7 nights every month of the year, often more. I know her, so it's likely she knows me and knows I do not represent danger. Once she had seen me, she acted almost like an urban bin raider who waits for the Postman to go by before having last nights Big Mac left overs for breakfast...
Watch the wind..keep still..and good luck.
Both will respond to bait but..town Fox will generally ignore your scent unless you're too close to the bait, but in the woods you will have more success if you consider and act on wind direction. If you know where their Earth is you can lay your bait and then get down wind of Earth/bait.
If you can, get off the ground, you don't need to get too high but dogs/ Foxes work to air and ground scents, getting up higher, even on a fallen tree will help.
I was on this fallen trunk so she picked up my scent slightly later than she normally would because I was down wind and slightly higher, also, she hadn't crossed the ground track I'd left going to the tree so I'd left no ground scent.
They were taken from one of my regular perches, not high, just downwind and keeping still (even when you think nothing is about)...
A split Hornbeam I use as a seat.
Sometimes the unexpected occurs...camped in the wood I heard the squeaks and growls of Fox Cubs scrapping in the nearby Ferns and just managed to get them in the fast fading daylight.
Brother and sister I believe...
People more knowledgeable than me about animal behaviour may not agree, but it's possible that the Vixen in my photo very likely knows my scent. I sleep in the wood 6 or 7 nights every month of the year, often more. I know her, so it's likely she knows me and knows I do not represent danger. Once she had seen me, she acted almost like an urban bin raider who waits for the Postman to go by before having last nights Big Mac left overs for breakfast...
Watch the wind..keep still..and good luck.
You probably know anyway TeeDee, but what I will remind you of if I may, is that Foxes are territorial animals. They have their own patches of countryside which apart from early winter when they are looking for mates, they hunt and defend (against other Foxes) quite rigorously.
So, if you are out with your camera and miss a chance at a Fox, don't give up, just watch it's line of travel as it's a good bet he's on or close to one of his regular hunting trails, so you can set up in that area in future.
So, if you are out with your camera and miss a chance at a Fox, don't give up, just watch it's line of travel as it's a good bet he's on or close to one of his regular hunting trails, so you can set up in that area in future.
Back when I was controversial and managed predators on an estate, young foxes, for the upcoming few months, come tearing in for calls. Best Fox call worked for me. When they are in a good position, shout, they will stand still for a while. As they run away they will almost always turn to look so be ready. Good luck, but be quick!
Adopt the tactics of the Hunter who calls foxes and you won't go far wrong. Just be fully camera prepared before you commence a calling sequence as they can come in faster than a train.
They can also be as shy to show as Southern Railways!
K
They can also be as shy to show as Southern Railways!
K
This one worked for me;
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/THE-ORIGINAL-FOX-CALL-DECOY-ATTRACTS-PREDATOR-FOXES-UK-/200462430972
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/THE-ORIGINAL-FOX-CALL-DECOY-ATTRACTS-PREDATOR-FOXES-UK-/200462430972
I've found that the Acme Predator call works well (it's just a wooden call with steel reeds inside) if you can see the fox and want to bring it closer. You can always use (or make your own) a Tenterfield whistle to draw foxes into your immediate area.
I used to work late at night. My walk home would take me through a large park with horse chestnut and lime trees. It is, however, mainly long grass. Because of this, almost every night I would come across foxes. My best experience was having 3, rusty looking town dwelling foxes running rings around me, almost like domesticated dogs. I left them some food but they were too dark to photograph. I often see much bushier foxes during the day, I really am blessed with how common an occurrence it is seeing them! anyway, here is a picture I took of a fox (poor quality due to zoom) eyeing me past the cemetery.
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