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May 26, 2010, a Wednesday
Pawnee National Grassland, Colorado, USA
— Discovered a Swift Fox close by
We got up about the same time as yesterday. I made instant coffee to go and J started a mug of tea steeping. We left in the Jeep around 7:10.
We drove to the Swift Fox den we discovered Monday in the Pawnee National Grassland. The fox was out at the den nearest the road, and J wasn't interested in photographing it again just resting in the tall grass. We drove to the top of the hill, and we couldn't see anything out by the other den, so we left to explore other areas.
We stopped to talk with the grader guy again, and he gave us some other locations to try. We tried them, and didn't see anything.
On the way back to the RV, we stopped at the den where we photographed Swift Foxes in 2007 to look around some more. Because the den where we had photographed them before didn't look active when we arrived on Saturday, I headed out to a second den site they had used in 2007 and I practically walked over a Swift Fox! I saw it scurry down into its den and the motion caught my eye. It went into the same den it used in 2007, and we were really excited to have found a potentially cooperative Swift Fox in a good location.
We set up our Primos Vision Blind to give us a good view of the active den, then entered the blind with our camera gear around 10:05 and waited. No foxes.
We returned to the RV around noon, and I had a Clif Bar, banana, and an apple for lunch because I didn't think my right thumb was up to the task of making a ham-and-Swiss sandwich. (You may read about my sprained right thumb on the blog entry for May 22, 2010.) I worked up a blog entry and then processed an image for it.
We went back out to the blind around 2:10 and it was windy. Swift Foxes don't like the wind, and we didn't see any before we went back in the RV around 2:55 as some really dark clouds were approaching.
We got to the RV just as it started to rain. I iced my right thumb and did some computer work. Thunder and lightening went by around 5:25.
We had dinner around 5:45 of Bertolli Shrimp, Asparagus & Penne and Texas Toast. The rain stopped while we were eating and there was some nice light too. J did the dishes and we got ready to go out.
We went out around 6:15 and set up to photograph from the Jeep because the late light wouldn't be good from the blind. We drove out, and there weren't any foxes, so we waited. The wind had picked up and it started raining again around 7:05. Then the wind started blowing like crazy and there was thunder and lightening nearby. We kept waiting because there were some gaps in the clouds that could provide some nice light just before sunset which was to be around 8:18. The wind started to die down around 7:50, but the gaps in the clouds had closed, so we headed back to the RV around 7:55.
We got in the RV just as it started to rain heavily again. I had some Asbach Uralt while doing some computer work.
We drove to the Swift Fox den we discovered Monday in the Pawnee National Grassland. The fox was out at the den nearest the road, and J wasn't interested in photographing it again just resting in the tall grass. We drove to the top of the hill, and we couldn't see anything out by the other den, so we left to explore other areas.
We stopped to talk with the grader guy again, and he gave us some other locations to try. We tried them, and didn't see anything.
On the way back to the RV, we stopped at the den where we photographed Swift Foxes in 2007 to look around some more. Because the den where we had photographed them before didn't look active when we arrived on Saturday, I headed out to a second den site they had used in 2007 and I practically walked over a Swift Fox! I saw it scurry down into its den and the motion caught my eye. It went into the same den it used in 2007, and we were really excited to have found a potentially cooperative Swift Fox in a good location.
We set up our Primos Vision Blind to give us a good view of the active den, then entered the blind with our camera gear around 10:05 and waited. No foxes.
We returned to the RV around noon, and I had a Clif Bar, banana, and an apple for lunch because I didn't think my right thumb was up to the task of making a ham-and-Swiss sandwich. (You may read about my sprained right thumb on the blog entry for May 22, 2010.) I worked up a blog entry and then processed an image for it.
We went back out to the blind around 2:10 and it was windy. Swift Foxes don't like the wind, and we didn't see any before we went back in the RV around 2:55 as some really dark clouds were approaching.
We got to the RV just as it started to rain. I iced my right thumb and did some computer work. Thunder and lightening went by around 5:25.
We had dinner around 5:45 of Bertolli Shrimp, Asparagus & Penne and Texas Toast. The rain stopped while we were eating and there was some nice light too. J did the dishes and we got ready to go out.
We went out around 6:15 and set up to photograph from the Jeep because the late light wouldn't be good from the blind. We drove out, and there weren't any foxes, so we waited. The wind had picked up and it started raining again around 7:05. Then the wind started blowing like crazy and there was thunder and lightening nearby. We kept waiting because there were some gaps in the clouds that could provide some nice light just before sunset which was to be around 8:18. The wind started to die down around 7:50, but the gaps in the clouds had closed, so we headed back to the RV around 7:55.
We got in the RV just as it started to rain heavily again. I had some Asbach Uralt while doing some computer work.