Longrock Fox Cubs

On an early morning visit to Longrock fields I saw this pair of Fox cubs lying out at the opposite side of a freshly cut grass field,

Lens to subject distance was around four hundred metres but light levels were good and I was working from a tripod but after taking a few shots I wanted to try to close the working distance,

The only cover a third of the way across the field was a electricity pole that was surrounded by nettles and small ring of uncut crops so I lined myself up so that the pole was between us and started moving forward a few paces at a time while taking a few single images each time that I stopped.

I reached the pole without being detected but at this point the sun disappeared behind a cloud formation and a breeze was picking up from the east which would sooner rather than later give scent warning to the fox cubs of my presence.

As I moved slowly on halving my working distance to around two hundred metres I could see a distinct reaction from the cubs as they picked up my scent as seen in the image below and that was the beginning of the end of this encounter.

The older of the two cuds started to guide the younger one further along the hedgerow but not without stopping for a leisurely neck scratch just before they both disappeared through a small gap in the hedgerow.