A (True ) Tale of Two Foxes & a Herd of Deer

(Watch on You tube full screen to see the second fox that I tallyho)

 35 degrees F at 7:15am.  A cold NW/W was to blow 10-20mph, but I swear the gusts were a lot higher. It felt cold if one wasn't out of the wind.

Our regular pack of  11 1/2 cple were surprisingly supplemented ( get it?!)  by 2 more couple when visitors from Delaware appeared. .... Late.  It wasn't until 8:15 that hounds were put into the covert, but it didn't take long for Part Time to find a fox. At 8:27 he announced his discovery and all hounds harked to his  find.

An interesting hour followed.  Three foxes got on the move,with the pack staying with  Party's pilot.    .  Bobby and I were  in a clearing  between two stands of woods. The camera caught our hunted fox emerge, cross the emerald wheat and dart back into the woods at a small pine tree..   About 200 feet away, a herd of deer with some  young bucks amongst broke covert from the same forest.  They start to run the opposite way, but then stop,stand for a few moments and then turn and run the exact same way the fox ran..  Bobby's young bitch, Pearl, had come back to us after some hounds began to beat up on her. It shook her up enough that she wouldn't hark back.  Pearl sees the deer and begins to run towards them.  We holler at her, which makes the deer stop and look at us.  Pearl obeys.  The deer, for some reason, dont enter the woods where the fox entered (and  there is an opening there), but instead, ran the field down about 100 feet  towards us, and then went in.  It's all on the video.

Only part  of the herd that emerges right after the fox (All on the video)

Bobby and I ran to get closer to where the fox and deer came across - just in case.  (We trust our hounds, we dont trust the guest hounds).  Watch as the hounds emerge into the wheat and run the fox line to the woods.  Pearl went with them .  Someone asked me recently if our hounds run deer.   Well, there's your answer, right there!

Once in the woods, a second fox got into the mix. We now had a herd of about 8 deer ,two  (or three) foxes  and a pack of hounds in one small covert!  No hounds rioted, but we did have the pack split onto  two foxes.  Each bunch runs around us for about another 1/2 hour. I hear one bunch coming towards me from my left, and another bunch coming towards me from the right. O boy,  it was about to get even more interesting!

I tallyho one fox, simultaneously, Bobby tally-ho's another one. You will hear him repeating the tallyho over and over,trying to get my attention - he doesnt realize I have viewed the other fox, and I don't turn around because I am trying to film the fox I am viewing.

 I keep the camera on the hounds running Bobby's fox because all of mine were on that one,lol!  At about 9:55, both foxes go to ground in the same den .

Everything was anti-climatic after that!   We moved further east to draw behind some grain tanks and another fox was found  , but it took awhile for hounds to rouse it.  Once on the run, this  fellow gave the pack a fast  chase of  about 40 minutes duration before going to ground also. 

I borrowed a shock collar for Marney because she has started drifting off if I dont get to her as soon as hounds put a fox in. Not always, but sometimes.  When she ignored me and began to wander off with two of the guest hounds, after we put those  first two foxes in , I zapped her.  It worked.   When the last fox denned, she stayed right there.

I'm hoping those guest hounds don't come back tomorrow....