June 3, 2014
Swift Fox Leaping and Swift Fox Kits Playing, Pawnee National Grassland, Colorado

It was a two-images-for-the-blog kind of day yesterday in the Pawnee National Grassland. The dog, or male, Swift Fox (Vulpes velox), is really getting used to me hanging around the den. Yesterday morning, he left the den area and went hunting for insects. I was really surprised that he came within 10 yds (9 m) of me before I made some too-sudden camera changes and he turned around and headed back to the den. Later, he went off hunting insects on the other side of the den and he got spooked when a vehicle came down the road. He ran back to the den and I caught him in mid air. The kits are starting to get quite active and they're also starting to play with each other. I was quite happy to capture this image of one trying to bite its sibling's tail yesterday afternoon because the kits are still spending a lot of their time near the den entrance which is behind the dirt mound and to the left behind a thick clump of grass. In fact, the timid vixen spent most of her time behind that clump of grass yesterday afternoon, but the more adventurous kits came out in the open for some nice photo ops.