Travel.LovePoland December 2020

As it often happens in nature, you should never, ever take
anything for granted. The first thing to break out of the pattern
were the feathers. The feather friends came as they wanted,
which was completely different from what I expected. Then the
fatal idea came to my mind to get on with fur. If I had suspected
how it would end, I would have been sitting in the swamp waiting
for the birds as long as possible.Topic number one: elks in marsh
marigolds. That is easy. Elks- there were some. Marigolds- there
were some as well. You need to know that the rhizomes and
leaves of these plants are a real delicacy for the four-legged
inhabitants of swamps, which they consume in delight, wading
among the spring backwaters. The only obstacle was the fact that
despite all my struggles, I could not meet them in the same place
and at the same time. As a result, the marsh fawn faded and elk
moms hid in inaccessible swamps to give birth to the next
generation of weirdos in peace. I will cover the subject of the
teddy bear expedition with a veil of silence, saying quietly that I
could not go on it... grrr. The only thing left for me to do was to
bravely fight with the foxies, which was the thing I had a huge
appetite for. After less than an hour of searching, we found a
beautiful burrow in a flowery meadow. We didn't even have to
wonder if it was inhabited. Right at its entrance, two red balls
were playing delightfully. There was nothing else to do but wait
for the afternoon light and start shooting. The redheads were still
so small that they should not be afraid of our discreet presence.
In front of the burrow, single feathers and remains of bones
littered around clearly indicated that the toddlers were feasting
on the prey brought by their mother. Over time, this mess will
become bigger and bigger. This is what distinguishes a fox from a
badger, which is exceptionally clean and regularly tidies the area
around its apartment. After an almost perfect order around the
burrow of extreme littering, you can probably guess who its
owner was. Emotionally, we completely ignored the first sign that
it would not be easy. The second one gave us a bit of food for
thought, but was quickly muffled by the vision of wonderfully lit
foxes playing on a small hill among flowers. The third was lurking
behind our backs to finally finish us off, but more on this later.The
afternoon lookout session ended in a total bust. The little foxies
scuttled into the burrow. And although we hypnotised the
entrance with all our power, no one dared to show up again.
Maybe if an ant, a mosquito, or a black fly tingled me, I would
somehow move. But there was nothing. I froze motionlessly.
Breathless, probably, and certainly totally thoughtless. Nothing!
We gathered our cameras and with the tails between our legs,
swearing like sailors, we decided to return at dawn. At four-thirty
the alarm clock ruthlessly roared to the whole house I'll Go
Barefoot (that's the title of a pretty popular folk song). I only
managed to tell it that it must be crazy, as it's still too cold to go
barefoot anywhere. So, I got up. On the way between the bed and
our Honda, I managed to put my shoes on, and off we went for
National Geographic-worthy photos.
A few minutes after five, I sat down at the set-up camera, with
my teeth chattering rhythmically. After an hour I was able to
chatter the whole gamut, after another thirty minutes I mastered
half the anthem. Still nothing in front of the camera! When the
first rays of the sun finally began to heat us gently, something
quivered. A nose appeared in the hole, then an eye, and then the
red ball moved towards us with a decisive step. One and a half
meters in front of the lens, the redhead stopped and placed a
good-sized poo. Then, by the same route, only a little faster he
returned to the burrow. It's simply fantastic – I already have the
Wildlife Photographer of the Year in my pocket. Winner in the
wildlife category of ‘Fox Toilet’. Or actually ‘A Fox in the Toilet’.
The subtle dawn passed like a golden dream and on the memory
card. It is a shame to talk about.At half-past seven we were
disturbed by a slight movement. The little ones, surprisingly,
decided to tilt their heads out of the ground. One by one they
stuck their noses towards us, pricked their ears, and after a
while, they ran to the hill we had noticed before to play. It took a
while for all six of them to take their plump bumps into the sun.
As we usually do, we only rubbed our hands and threw ourselves
to the cameras with the intention of filling up the cards, when the
foxes, after the initial play and stretching, left our dream scene
one by one. After a few moments, the little ones spread across
the meadow like ants. One crawled almost like an earthworm on
our legs, the other, Indiana Jones, boldly rammed the bushes. Two
more jumped up after their siblings. Only the sloths were left,
curled up in the sunlit hole and even their ears could not be seen.
However, this did not put us off at all. After all, how long can such
youngsters stay away from the safe den? They will probably be
disturbed by something and will run back to its vicinity.Meanwhile,
we watched as all four explorers frolic playfully in the meadow.
Unfortunately, completely beyond the range of our lenses,
something was clearly wrong! Delighted by the discovery of the
burrow, we didn't even check where the other exits were. After
all, it is always the case that the fox apartment has a number of
emergency exits! From one living room, which can be up to three
meters underground, these clever animals lead a whole complex
of corridors and spare exits. The fox was once called cunning for
a reason. It also outsmarted us and in what a style! I was entitled
to an award for wool-gathering, not for my photos.I will not
describe what the foxes did in the vicinity of the second entrance
to the burrow, because it makes my blood boil. Let me just
mention that immediately after this revealing thought, we started
crawling to the frisky kids. Did this work? Well, I was successful
right after I almost knocked my teeth out with a tripod and
blackened my eye with the camera while crawling, sweeping
everything I found beneath me with a net on the way. As a result,
I reached the foxes as a decent scum of all weeds. Additionally,
huffing and spitting with ants and various meadow vermin. There
is nothing like a quiet, relaxing rest and hobby in nature!
32 TRAVEL.LOVEPOLAND