A few years ago I had an amazing experience where I stumbled upon an area of wasteland full of fox holes carved into a stretch of sloped woodland. By sheer luck and good fortune I encountered a group of fox cubs playing in the afternoon sun. They allowed me to get really close and either didn't notice my presence or didn't seem to mind it. I only had my phone with me but made sure I took loads of video footage of them darting in and out of their hole and chasing each other around. It left me feeling privileged to have seen it and was easily the best wildlife encounter I've ever had.

Then, disaster struck (and a lesson learnt) - when upgrading phones and after backing everything up to my PC, I formatted the phone memory card, convinced everything had been transferred to the computer. But... it hadn't. 😭 The videos were missing and the phone was now wiped. Gutted was an understatement.

Each April/May since I've returned to the same spot in hopes of seeing more fox cubs, but so far I've had no luck. A few weeks ago, however, I visited the area again with a sense of optimism and anticipation.

Suddenly I heard a series of terrifying screeches and squeals in the distance, so I headed slowly - covered head to toe in camouflage - in that direction. The sounds got louder and after my eyes adjusted to the scene I could see glimpses of movement up ahead, but I still wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. I knew that foxes sometimes sound like babies crying when they fight, but these were closer to the kinds of noises a pig would make when scared.

But sure enough, after a little while I noticed three fox cubs darting in and out of their den, chasing each other and rolling around in the dirt.

The light was terrible and shrubbery was very much in the way, so I didn’t get any of those actions shots. I was sitting a fair distance away on this occasion, too, so the photos are cropped to all heck, but I was very pleased to get them anyway.

The first two photos of the adult fox were taken about two weeks prior to those of the fox cubs, in a slightly different area, but I suspect they are they same family.