It was getting later and later in the day as I was driving around Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming this fall.  I had my hopes set on finding a grizzly to photograph; ideally 399 with her four cubs.

As it so often does while out looking for wildlife to photograph, miles and miles of scenery pass on by without any bears in sigh t. The sun was close to setting behind the Tetons when I spotted movement in a sagebrush field.  I parked the car on the side of the dirt road, grabbed my D500 with the 200-500 lens and went in for a closer look.  I was sure it wasn't a bear as the shape I had seen was too small but I grabbed my can of bear pepper spray nonetheless.

About 50 yards into the field, I found him: a beautiful male fox!

As soon as I saw him in the sagebrush, I sat down.  The fox looked at me briefly but clearly had other things on his mind: he was out hunting!

Over the course of the next 15 to 20 minutes, he not only tolerated my presence as he worked his way through the field looking for rodents such as voles, he walked in my direction on two occasions. Not that he cared about me being there, I guess I was just sitting where his nose or ears took him on his hunt.

I was fortunate to be allowed to take quite a few images of him, some of pouncing sequences where the fox stands really still for a few seconds to listen to a rodent in the soil in front of him, followed by a vertical jump and the fox landing front feet first into the soil.  However, those images are a part of about 2,000 unedited images so stay tuned. :-)

Here's one of my favorite portraits of the fox with the sun setting behind him.  This image is available as a Fine Art Print in my Etsy shop: click here.

P.S. My 2020 Holiday Sale on Fine Art Prints is going on until 12/10/2020: click here for details

Fine Art Print in living room