Mission Accomplished

Saturday, June 28, 2008 10:53:03 PM

,

This secretive litter of cubs have managed to largely evade my DSLR, and the webcam hasn't been of much use. So, I decided to put my battered trail camera in the fox pen. This is the same self-activating camera that was knocked by a bear in Canada last summer, yet survived, so I presumed that it would be able to endure the cubs!

I was almost correct. Actually, in some respects the experiment was almost too successful. The camera recorded over 500 events, leaving me with over 300 fifteen-second video clips to work through faint But it has given me a unique glimpse into this litter, and provided much more varied footage than I was anticipating...



I found the camera face down on the floor of the pen having been knocked by the leaping cub who concluded the video lol It's not damaged; it's a very tough outdoor device.

Just one photo today - the Old Dogfox lurking in the iris leaves smile

Unlikely CompanionsFamiliar Trails

Comments

Dacotah Saturday, June 28, 2008 11:03:57 PM

WOW, love the photo. smile
Great post Adele.

Andy WilsonDudley Saturday, June 28, 2008 11:16:06 PM

Nice photo! yes

Vulpes vulpes Sunday, June 29, 2008 1:18:31 AM

Hmmm, WHAT did the cat scratching post do to deserve such brutal treatment?! lol This pen "furniture" appears to be in demand!! A good investment - although I wonder how long it will last! rolleyes

A great sequence of video capture, Adele. A nice insight into their antics! It's a tough life being a cub, hey! knight

...and not forgetting handsome ODF lurking in the iris leaves! ninja

MarieMaGoose Sunday, June 29, 2008 1:21:31 AM

The video was soooo entertaining. I still can't get over how much the little foxes are like domestic pets in their antics. I certainly have learned a lot.

Darkogdare Sunday, June 29, 2008 5:26:15 AM

ODF heart

Loiscakkleberrylane Sunday, June 29, 2008 10:41:07 AM

Great video! The dogfox is so photogenic! That was so nice when the two foxes got up together on the cat post! I love that tail swishing all over the other fox!

Adele BrandSittingFox Sunday, June 29, 2008 10:54:26 AM

@Carol - the Old Dogfox lives a mostly tranquil existence but I like it when he looks like he's in a jungle! bigsmile Thanks! smile

Adele BrandSittingFox Sunday, June 29, 2008 10:58:27 AM

@Andy - thankyou! smile After all this time, I'm having work harder to get fresh angles on him!

Adele BrandSittingFox Sunday, June 29, 2008 11:03:56 AM

@Vulpes - well lol I had doubts about the cat climber's survival from the outset, but figured it would be a good way to keep the cubs "amused". And, as you can see, they do adore it, especially Tina. I only wish I'd had it when Chatter was here!

It was hard work sorting through the clips but I did find it a glimpse into the personalities of these reclusive cubs.

Thanks! smile

Adele BrandSittingFox Sunday, June 29, 2008 11:05:41 AM

@Marie - thankyou! smile They are like...well, a cross between kittens and puppies I guess! Random destructive tendencies can be found in both species wink

bigsmile

Adele BrandSittingFox Sunday, June 29, 2008 11:06:02 AM

@Darko - I thought you'd like that one! Thankyou! smile

Adele BrandSittingFox Sunday, June 29, 2008 11:08:50 AM

@Lois - thanks! smile I liked the tail-over-shoulder clip too. That's Kitty's brush. It's nice to see her when she is not growling, for once! wink

Dacotah Sunday, June 29, 2008 12:10:16 PM

bigsmile

Anonymous Sunday, June 29, 2008 3:52:17 PM

Sandra writes: Very interesting how the fox completely disappeared into thin air as it started to climb up the wall. They're so elusive! :-)

Adele BrandSittingFox Sunday, June 29, 2008 5:01:32 PM

Or possibly she was beamed out by a transportor in the pen that I haven't discovered yet bigeyes

Okay, I did laugh at that when I looked at the compiled footage last night, but I was too tired to do anything with the editing by that stage! Movie Maker crashed on me about three times. I never knew it was allergic to avi files...

Vulpes vulpes Sunday, June 29, 2008 5:29:14 PM

..Adele, Movie Maker is just allergic...full stop! I think it's Microsoft's attempt at a practical joke. p

Adele BrandSittingFox Sunday, June 29, 2008 6:05:48 PM

Everyone keeps telling me that I should hate it. I agree, to a large extent, and yet...I don't know, I just haven't found another editor that allows me to do basic stuff like splicing so easily. I usually find it's okay if I treat it kindly, but it was in a really bad mood yesterday. I hope it's not another codec issue worried

Hiroyukiinfinity-1 Sunday, June 29, 2008 8:47:33 PM

Have you tried the freeware Virtualdub? It's very good for simple AVI editing and also videocapture. It won't save to flash format or anything though, just AVI, but I prefer Xvid AVIs over other formats personally.
That trail camera seems very useful!

Adele BrandSittingFox Sunday, June 29, 2008 9:44:03 PM

Thanks for the link smile I'll add it to my movie editing software list!

My most serious issues with Movie Maker are with MPEG2 files, which send it into fits, and I'm currently using WinDVD Creator to convert them into a format that MM finds palatable before editing. It's getting exceedingly tiresome scared I know I could use WinDVD itself, but it just isn't as powerful as MM for doing complex edits.

RE: the trail cam, yes, it's one of the most interesting (and at times aggravating!) pieces of equipment I have!

Words Sunday, June 29, 2008 11:37:53 PM

Excellent video! They are such playful little things and wonderful to see them like that. As for editing video, I've yet to find any program that I actually enjoy using.

Lovely shot of ODF.

Eliane a/k/a Ellymomable Monday, June 30, 2008 12:09:43 AM

Entertaining video. Brilliant photo of ODF.

The foxes are just lovely little creatures. I see you put a tarp on the cage, that make them come out more, right? Because the cage seems more enclosed, they are feeling more secure, right?

At this stage, if they were wild, would they be venturing foth into the wilderness or still just playing in the den?

Hiroyukiinfinity-1 Monday, June 30, 2008 1:34:45 AM

@sittingfox: re mpeg2
VirtualDub can't open MPEG2 files, but a modified version called VirtualDubMod can open them directly then you can save as AVI or Matroska format. Unfortunately it's based on an old version of VirtualDub (though for most purposes it's good enough) so I keep both versions to hand. Each prog. is only about 1MB size anyhow.

Sprogger McSprogsprogger Monday, June 30, 2008 2:22:49 PM

Great video, made me smile smile

CynthiaCynthia23 Monday, June 30, 2008 3:50:11 PM

Every second of the video is really cool. I see foxes all the time in the yard here, but you don't get to see this interaction you provide with your posts. The photo too is just lovely. Thanks Adele! smile

Adele BrandSittingFox Tuesday, July 1, 2008 8:17:27 PM

@Words - surely someone out there wants to make a programme that isn't an ordeal to use? We can hope so, anyway...

Thanks, it was a fun experiment with the cubs! smile

Adele BrandSittingFox Tuesday, July 1, 2008 8:19:43 PM

@Elly - the tarp is to act as a wind break. The top of the cat climber is about four feet off the ground and the tarp offers some protection against wild weather (which we haven't had much of lately, I admit). It is secured down to stop it flapping. They are shy cubs but have a lot of privacy up there at the back of the garden.

Certainly I do see wild cubs of this age out and about, but the adults shouldn't be far away.

Thanks! smile

Adele BrandSittingFox Tuesday, July 1, 2008 8:20:48 PM

@Infinity - cheers, thanks for that smile My hope is to find something that I can edit MPEG2 files directly with though, as it's so time consuming to keep converting them back and forth scared

Adele BrandSittingFox Tuesday, July 1, 2008 8:21:16 PM

@Sprogger - surely Kip would never treat a cat climber like that? wink

bigsmile

Adele BrandSittingFox Tuesday, July 1, 2008 8:22:16 PM

@Cynthia - thankyou! smile

I would love to see a photo of one of your local foxes, if possible! They are such fascinating and unpredictable creatures.

CynthiaCynthia23 Tuesday, July 1, 2008 8:29:27 PM

There is a lot of variety of wild life around here. The digital camera I'm using is good for how I use it, but not for anything moving. If I am lucky, I will definitely get a picture for you. smile

Adele BrandSittingFox Tuesday, July 1, 2008 9:11:58 PM

Thankyou! smile

Hiroyukiinfinity-1 Tuesday, July 1, 2008 9:19:46 PM

For simply trimming unwanted bits from mpeg2 files, or saving segments of them without recoding, I use Mpg2Cut. For mpeg2 it's the only trimmer I've found that actually works. (One tip: by default it saves clips slowly so as not to hog the cpu, if you bump up the speed to max during saving it is enormously faster! I don't know why it defaults to slow.)

Adele BrandSittingFox Thursday, July 3, 2008 8:14:26 PM

Well thankyou very much! smile up That will be a big help, hopefully, for making quick videos. I'm very glad to know such a thing does actually exist! smile

Jenny Jonesmountainlion_wales Sunday, July 6, 2008 4:04:16 PM

hehehe, it looks like they're playing 'who's the king of the castle'!!

Adele BrandSittingFox Sunday, July 6, 2008 4:19:15 PM

lol Quite possibly. It seems to be a popular game with young foxes (and even old ones!) I've seen them play it on fallen trees and even heaps of turf!

Jenny Jonesmountainlion_wales Sunday, July 13, 2008 11:12:54 AM

hehe, cool smile

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