I took a four day weekend to go to camp and it has been such a good time. My first day which was Thursday was overcast and gloomy so I took care of errands and lounged around with my boyz. 

On Friday, I went out to check on a couple of osprey nests I've been watching. The first one is right here in Ticonderoga. It is an established nest, but a new nest for me to watch. The other nest is one I've been watching in Crown Point for several years. The nest in Ticonderoga was really fun to watch and it looked like they had one / possibly two chicks inside. When I got to the Crown Point nest I was extremely disappointed as it seems there is a new female in there. She was not at all tolerant and did not want me anywhere near the area, so I wound up leaving.

Later in the day I went to somebody's home to view the fox kits in their yard. Often times there were two kits that would come out and pose with some slight interaction between them. They were very laid back and so cute to watch. I took lots of photos between the osprey and fox and was hoping to do a blog post last night, until I realized I had forgotten my card reader and battery chargers at home. Sadly, I couldn't upload any of my photos, so today I decided I would purchase a card reader to leave at camp so I won't have to worry about packing the one and only one I have at home.

Today I began my day by going to the Osprey nest in Ticonderoga. I was happy to confirm that there are indeed two itty bitty chicks in the nest. The female osprey stayed in the nest with them the whole time and the male perched in a nearby tree. He left twice to hunt. The first time he returned with a small fish that he kept to himself and ate. The second time he left, he returned with another small fish that he brought to the nest for the female and the kids. The behaviors of this pair seem very similar to the behaviors of the pair I've watched in Crown Point for several years. The only difference was that when he wasn't off hunting, he was perched nearby in a visible tree.

After watching the osprey, I picked strawberries than went back to camp to walk the boyz and hang out with them. It was really nice chilling at the campsite as it was 82 and hot out and the campsite is nicely shaded and feels so much better. My original plan was to kayak after my afternoon break, but instead I decided to go out and see if I could get some more pics of the red fox kits and save kayaking for tomorrow morning.

I arrived on location for the kits around 4 pm and it was sunny and hot. There was no shade where I stood and I wasn't so sure the kits would even come out. I sat contently and periodically I did have one come out to pose, eat grass and snooze. After a good 90 mins of sweating and not seeing too much, I decided to set up camp in the shade, under a tree that was on the backside of the garage they were using as a den. What a great idea that turned out to be as I stayed a little cooler and the foxes came charging out to play. All along I was under the impression that there were only two kits, but at this point I learned there were really four kits and they were absolutely adorable and fun to watch. They only played for about 5-10 minutes before returning back into the garage, but it was a really fun few minutes. I considered sticking around to see if they would come back out, but I figured they were probably snoozing after all the fun and that it would be a long while before I would see them again, so I headed back to camp.

As soon as I got back to my site and got out of my car, I realized my sister had decided to make a surprise visit to camp. That was a nice surprise as I got to end my day spending some time with her and my nieces. 

Now that it is the end of the day, I can say it was truly an awesome day! It was tough to pick a photo for the blog, but after a quick peak through of what I had taken, I new it had to be an action shot of the kits playing. It's so amazing to watch these guys and I'm so sad I'm going home tomorrow and probably won't see them again. I'm so thankful for the little time I got. What a blessing to see wildlife in their natural environment!