I hurried out of the covert and to the road just in time to view a very small, very dark red fox cross High Stump Rd, but on the far end of the covert from where I was positioned.
I tally-hoed to the fellas still in the woods, and proceeded to move down the road so as to get a closer look at the hounds as they crossed. I usually stop too far away, and today was no exception. However, as I stood listening as the pack approached, I was stunned to see another, lighter-colored fox moving right towards me. He was coming from the same section of woods the first one did, but he was going to cross the road much closer to me. I tried to get the camera to focus, but it couldnt capture this fox as he was attempting to emerge onto the blacktop EXACTLY where I was standing. If you watch the video carefully, I cue where to look- the fox is VERY close, and you can see him turn his back to me and run. It just isnt in focus.
Before I had the run-in with the second fox, I saw two hounds emerge on the line of the first one, and assumed they had the foxs' line ahead of the other hounds. But as soon as the second fox ran into me, I looked up to see the rest of the pack running to me . I managed to get the camera focused on them, and it just kept roling while I turned the pack around and got them settled back on fox # 2's line. The other two hounds on fox # 1 harked back to the pack at this time, also. We now had all on, and a nice chased ensued with much running in the open, until Charles decided to run towards the Marshy Hope canal. We had to break the pack before they got there, as we didnt want them swimming across the canal. It was about 9:35 when we broke them.
We made another draw and got another red on the move, but he ran straight to a hole,staying up for only 15 minutes. It was now about 10:30, the wind was gusting pretty hard out of the N/NW, and it still felt cold! We went home,to give the hounds two days' rest. They will hunt again Saturday and Sunday.
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