I am always fascinated how folks (such as you) take such pics in their backyard and find stuff like this. I suppose this is what you find in a backyard when you have no bordering fence . I live in VERY suburbanized California, where it's pretty much a requirement for all houses to have a fence surrounding their backyard. Only things I find are lizards, Opossums, rats, mice, squirrels, wild parrots and various birds. No kit foxes.

Well... I can take pics such as this anywhere! One of the benefits of having a nice DSLR camera and a few different lenses to choose from. As for finding foxes in my back yard? One of the fringe benefits of living in a woods-y rural area in New England.

Today was pure luck. Right place - right time. The mother of these guys has been living around here for a few years now. Every year she has a litter and we'll spot them around here and there. This is the first time I've been able to get any pictures of them, though. Hoping I can catch some of mum later!

Cute indeed!!! We have many foxes here as well. But they only visit at night. I could basically do the same pictures (I prefer videos) at any time. You just have to sit on a bench near the woods after sunset, wait for 10 minutes and "watch the show" as seen in my YT videos.

I may do just that the next time I'm home (back out on the road again tomorrow morning for a few weeks) now that we know where the den is.

Still waiting for mum to make an appearance. Unfortunately it's hard to get any closer because there's so much in the way of dry leaves and sticks down there. Can't take a single step without making a huge racket. Is it normal for the mother to leave them alone for extended periods during the day?

Yes, that seems to be the case, because when I filmed/observed my wild foxes here, the mother was away for more than 3 hours. I think it depends on how much is going on in the surrounding area. If the mother thinks it's save to leave for a while then she does it. Just like in my case, where nobody (except me) is around and no danger is in sight...

I did finally catch sight of her and managed to get one picture. She just popped up out of the den. No idea how long she'd been in there. Sadly the noise of my camera spooked her. In your experience, is it true what I've been told that it you just sort of quietly hang around that they'll eventually come to realize that you're not a threat and tolerate your presence more readily?

Hmm... Depends on the fox I would say. The cubs stumble right into things without caring too much. At least that’s what I observed. But the mother is super alerted especially when her cubs are so young as in your pictures. If you sit there long and often enough, then maybe they get used to it. But it will take a little more than just two days of patient waiting.