'Pack' is a strange word when applied to foxes. Technically, the collective noun is a skulk, which doesn't fit too well either. 'Pack' brings an image of wolves loping through the snow after elk, but foxes are strictly solitary hunters. Nevertheless, they do form a kind of group which has a hierarchy and a territory, although there are always vagabond foxes that wander in and out uninvited.

I'm getting to know the foxes who are currently living in the territory which includes the garden. Absolute numbers are still hard to tell, but there are at least five, including three adults and two cubs. This evening I had all five of them present at once but snatching photos of fast moving foxes in the dark without flash is an opportunist's art. Happily, one of the cubs eventually permitted itself a ten second time out



And this is probably his father, a youngish male with an enormous white tip on his brush.







The vixen is not looking very handsome, but they never do at this time of year. Describing her as hyperactive would be apt, and that isn't a good quality from the photographer's perspective I tracked her with the camera for several minutes, worsening a headache, and still ended up with nothing except vixen-blurs. But for the record, here she is



The other adult, who evaded me completely, is a small male, probably unrelated to the dominant pair (male cubs typically leave their natal territory).

They're not the boldest foxes who have ever come here, but they're certainly demonstrating a wide variety of 'talk', both body language and vocal, and I'm looking forward to getting to them all better