It has been hot, hot, hot here the last two weeks, well over 100F, and the desert animals are thirsty. Pools have long dried up and critters from all over come for a nightly drink at the fountain outside my office window. These are grey foxes and are quite common from southern Canada all the way to Venezuela. Of the three species of fox in Arizona (gray,red, and kit foxes) grey foxes are the most prevalent. These critters are great tree climbers and they often climb the large mesquite tree next to my home and pad around on the roof. They are omnivorous and eat everything from small mammals, to crickets, to firethorn berries when they ripen.

I photographed these two while sound asleep thanks to the motion detector I set up to fire my Sony camera (below) and got this lucky snap.

Here is an infrared night video I made with the Bushnell Trail cam,  a nifty little unit, that is great for wildlife observation. In fact the BBC used a bunch of these under $200 cameras to record tigers in remote areas of India to capture never before seen footage in their stunning documentary,Lost Land of the Tiger (go to 9:00).  Just set it up where you think critters will pass and it will automatically detect and record either short movies or still photos.

Here is my Trail cam vid.