Mother springs a surprise on FoxCam

Trying to get video of the fox cubs on the trail cameras is very frustrating.  All four are still dashing around but they don't often appear together and don't produce many images worth posting.  This was an exception.  The camera struggles to cope with the high contrast in bright sunshine but I have adjusted it as much as I can and cropped it a bit so the image is not too bad. 

I generally prefer close-up images with the camera mounted low down for a more intimate view but that hasn't been a success with the foxes so I put the camera on a tree, without an additional lens, to get a wider view.  The parents rarely appear, probably because they know where the cameras are.  However, one day the vixen arrived at about 11am and as she turned round there was a surprise.

The day before at 1pm there were two cubs suckling.  The whole episode went on for over four minutes but I have cut it down to two.

The foxes' den is in an abandoned corner of the badger sett and although the badgers probably don't approve of their rather untidy neighbours they seem to get along OK.  I have occasionally seen the fox cubs sniffing round an entrance to the sett but only when there was no sign of a badger.  Here the vixen is exploring at 3 in the afternoon, apparently unaware of the camera and only a few minutes after mother badger had gone back inside.

I have also caught the dog fox on video once in the past couple of weeks.  He had one cub for company and brought out a dead crow for it to play with, although there was only this one clip.

The parents bring back food and leave it for the cubs to find and eat.  I have also seen a grey squirrel, a heron chick and another crow.  I expect the cubs are ranging farther afield now as they seem to be spending less and less time near my cameras.