Ooh, foxy lady - For real, in the wild! Wildlife encounter clicks of a real fox

So cute!
Jimi Hendrix crooned "Ooh Foxy lady" and I always wondered why he thought Foxy was a good description for a lady. Then I ran into this female fox ...

How can we not love those lovely brown eyes! 😍

I was out roaming, as usual last Sunday, in a grassland. Saw nothing much other than a flock of peacocks. Sun was getting close to the horizon and a nice golden light appeared. There was nothing around to photograph though.

Then, out of the blue, appeared this lady fox. Watching me from a distance...

As I moved a bit closer, she actually started approaching me instead of getting away from me. Aaah - I must be somewhere near her den, I thought. I have observed this behavior from female foxes - they first bait the potential threat by coming close, looking all clueless. Sometimes even pretending to limp - so as to appear helpless. Then, when the potential threat thinks she will be easy prey, she takes off, leading the threat away from the den.

This one did exactly that. Approached me and then, as I moved forward, started turning and drawing me away from my original location...

I got some excellent close ups of her in the process, Playing along, I slowly followed her and let her think I was falling for her ruse..
When I was too slow to follow, she actually sat down and waited for me to follow. It was so adorable!

After getting some excellent closeups like this, I decided to go back to my original location and look for the den - just for academic interests and also to see what the foxy lady will do if I approached the den area again...

I was being careful to avoid sudden or aggressive looking movements and also kept my distance from a mound that could have been the den location. I was watching the foxy lady from the corner of my eyes as I walked.

She got a bit excited and sprinted to one side, getting into some tall grass. She must have overtaken me and arrived near the den location in the tall grass.

Then, sitting inside the grass, camouflaged, she observed what I was up to.

She looked so cute and funny, camouflaged in the grass but watching me..

I think this makes a very adorable wildlife portrait. What do you think?

When I still continued to walk towards the den area, she suddenly sprinted across my path. As if to dare me to follow her...

I did not want her to get anxious and worry that her den location had been compromised. So, once again, I pretended to fall for her ruse and followed her. This time, I did so at a fast pace and allowed her to lead me away to a fair distance as the light faded.

Then, pretending to get tired, I moved away - in a direction totally different than the den area. From a distance, I saw her wander back slowly to her den...

The Foxy lady was getting safely back to her den ...

This turned out to be one of my best encounters in the wild with a fox - both in terms of the interaction (allowing me to observe behavior) and in terms of pictures. I had to use high ISO due to fading evening light but I think I did a fair job of getting some good fox portraits.

What do you think?

Please feel free to comment with your opinions and suggestions.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures ...

Please comment freely and let me know your opinion. I will try to bring many different types of wildlife photos/macro/Astro posts to the community. Feedback and comments are welcome,. I am still learning many techniques and always value feedback from experts in this community.

Have a nice day everyone. Cheers!