Foxes in art…
Posted By Foxy Lady on November 16, 2010
The BBC reports that paintings of foxes have taken the top two prizes in an art competition.
Garden Fox Watch
Watching a family of foxes growing up in my back garden.
Our garden foxes...
Welcome to the Garden Fox Watch blog, detailing the life and times of the family of foxes that are growing up in our back garden.
Strange hybrids
Posted By Foxy Lady on November 5, 2010
It’s November 5th, which this year happens to be both Guy Fawkes’ Night and also Diwali, and thus the skies over SW London/NE Surrey are full of fireworks. The foxes, somewhat to my surprise, seem unbothered by them, as is Small Cat; Lardy Cat really hates fireworks and is even now hiding in a box while Feliway (kitty Valium, more or less) fills the air.
The darker evenings are making it hard for me to get decent photos of the foxes just now, so let me take you back to a day in July when a strange fox-cat hybrid appeared to stalk the lawns…
Clocks
Posted By Foxy Lady on October 31, 2010
When I wandered downstairs this evening around sixish to prepare food for my cats and also for the foxes, both groups were looking a little impatient; the cats attempting to get under my feet, and two of the foxes waiting on the lawn. I fear that their internal clocks suggested that they should have had their food an hour earlier, around sunset, whereas I was working off the time on my computer, and last night was the change back from summer time 😉
Foxes are silly creatures sometimes…
Posted By Foxy Lady on October 29, 2010
A few weeks ago I was keeping an eye on one of the local foxes as he appeared to be limping. However, the limp didn’t appear to be stopping him practising his pouncing on (the remains of) one of the toys they had brought into the garden…
Interloper
Posted By Foxy Lady on October 23, 2010
The nights are drawing in, the temperature is dropping, and that makes a more-or-less-regular food source look more attractive to foxes… even those foxes who are new to the area.
I looked out of the window one afternoon a week or so back and saw this:
Yes, okay, a fox on the lawn, not all that unusual — except that when I went to put the food out shortly afterwards, she(?) scarpered off over the back fence. That is unusual these days — our locals will take cover in the bushes but won’t usually leave the garden, because they know there’s about to be food. Also, when she ran off, I could tell she wasn’t one of our usual visitors; all of our regulars have quite darkly-furred tails (with the exception of Mr Half-a-tail from a few weeks ago) and this fox’s tail was considerably paler (and also somewhat less bushy), and she seemed quite a bit larger.
She’s been back quite regularly since and has been having a good go at evicting Ears from her territory; mostly unsuccessfully, I think, although there have been some noisy arguments/communications and one or two face-offs:
I have taken to spreading the food out across the lawn a little more, so that Ears and the interloper (PaleTail) can both get some. Some nights, we have multiple foxes coexisting quite happily while they eat:
Jam tomorrow…
Posted By Foxy Lady on October 5, 2010
I’ve never had (or wanted) to feed my foxes jam sandwiches, but apparently it is a well-known way of getting them to take a mange remedy, should one be needed. When our locals were younger, they seemed quite happy to eat bread — there are videos of ours on YouTube hunting down and making off with slices of bread — but these days they are just not so interested; the cheese, dog food and nuts are more interesting…
These photos are also from early July; hope you like them.
Dinnertime for the fox
Posted By Foxy Lady on October 4, 2010
As I mentioned, the weather finally improved enough yesterday that I could take some more video of one of the foxes in daylight. Took a while to upload, as it’s almost seven minutes long, but here — enjoy 😉
Countryfile
Posted By Foxy Lady on October 3, 2010
Well, that was all right, wasn’t it? … wasn’t it? I think I came off significantly better than Steve the fox-exterminator who did not wish to have his face on camera, and the footage they had from me of the fox in my garden looked good.
I’ve been trying to get some more video footage of the foxes all week, but they’ve been rather uncooperative; here is some from Thursday and then I have some more from today to upload over the next couple of days.
PS
Posted By Foxy Lady on October 3, 2010
You are all going to watch Countryfile later, aren’t you? Jolly good.
Foxes don’t like rain
Posted By Foxy Lady on October 3, 2010
All of the Foxcam footage over the last couple of days seems to have involved very damp foxes. I don’t think they like the rain, and they definitely don’t seem to want to come out in daylight when it’s raining! Unfortunately the fox who rather elegantly shook itself on camera did so right at the edge of the shot so it’s not clear enough to put online…
But here, have some photos from early July, from when it was still sunny. Sometimes the foxes stretch out with their back legs straight out behind them; do dogs do this as well? I’ve never seen a cat do so. Also, one photo which was a case of “argh! does the long lens focus that close?”…
