Breckenridge Sights and Wildlife

At least once a week when I’m driving around Breckenridge and Summit County, I wish I had my camera in my car. Yesterday was one of those days.

I was driving past a Breckenridge vacation rental, and right next to the driveway, I saw two young foxes. I stopped my car, and the one closest to me, about 4 feet away, just laid there, basking in the sun, looking up at me. Even as I rolled down my window, it remained still.

Its brother or sister — I’m not sure which — was sunning itself about 9 feet away from my car. It was a little more shy; when I rolled down my window, it stood up and headed toward its den, which was only a foot away.

Once again, I said aloud to myself, “Uh! I wish I had my camera!” (The sound of my voice caused the more bold fox to stand up, just in case I made a move.) I keep forgetting to carry my camera around while I’m driving through Summit County. And, I continue to see sights that astound me — even though I’ve lived here for years and years.

Sometimes it’s the way the light is falling on a patch of snow on the mountain peaks, sometimes it’s the pink clouds dramatically painted through the sky, and often, it’s a fox or an osprey or other wildlife. Last week, it was an amazing shot of an older man with a cowboy hat standing next to his model A Ford, which he had parked right next to Breckenridge’s historic cemetery, Valley Brook. It was a perfect shot: The man, the old car, and the iron entrance gate to the cemetery, which says: “Valley Brook Cemetery.”

But back to the foxes: I had known those young foxes were bound to show up any day now; for the last two weeks, I’ve been driving by this particular Breckenridge vacation rental, and at least three times a week, I would see the mama fox guarding her den. Yesterday was the first I saw of her babies.

The beauty of these creatures continues to amaze me. They are sly, mysterious and bold; they’ll prance across the road or nearly blend into the pine tree barked forests. They seem as curious about me as I am about them; they’ll stop and stare as I drive or walk by.

Last winter, one played in the snow, right outside my window. It kept diving into the snow headfirst, then jumping out of the little hole it had made, only to dive in again.

According to the Colorado Division of Wildlife, (visit them at www.wildlife.state.co.us), four species of foxes live in Colorado. I mostly see red foxes, which are about 3 feet long and weigh 9 to 11 pounds. Their fur is white on the belly, reddish-orange on top, and they have a bushy white-tipped tail. The best time to spot them is at dawn and dusk. They reproduce once every spring with an average of four babies in the litter.

Other species include gray foxes, which have a black-tipped tail and are grayish-brown. The Swift and Kit foxes are the smallest — their tails, which can measure 27-36 inches, are as big as their bodies. The Swift fox lives on the eastern plains of Colorado, while the Kit fox makes the desert shrub-lands in western valleys its home.