Posted By Foxy Lady on July 27, 2010
Yes, we really ARE over a month behind with the photo posts. Don’t even ask about Foxcam.
I think the number of photos I can get is likely to start going down a bit; we’re not seeing the cubs quite as often and the evenings are of course getting a little shorter. I imagine the cubs are starting to roam a bit more widely in search of their own territories. We’re still seeing them coming back for food in the evenings, and sometimes also during the day, but not for as long and not necessarily altogether. I haven’t seen Mrs Fox in daylight for a few days, although I still need to check the night-time footage to see if she’s been around; it’d seem likely since the den here is (presumably) her territory rather than the cubs’…
These photos are from June 13th, and towards the end of the set you’ll see the fate of one of the balls which has been purloined from a neighbouring garden and brought in by one of the foxes for a toy. They played together with it — or possibly wrestled one another for it — until it was largely torn apart, as is the fate of many such toys. The garden is also currently graced with another hard plastic ball (with holes in it), what was once a tennis ball (but would no longer bounce), the head of some kind of troll-type toy (the body was around for a while but I’ve not seen it lately) and a child’s pink Croc-type shoe. Although the shoe is rather chewed, I can confirm there’s no small leg or foot in it. Just in case you were concerned, you understand.
Category: Uncategorized |
No Comments »
Tags: Photos, Talk
Posted By Foxy Lady on July 24, 2010
A couple of evenings ago I put out the food for the foxes as usual, although the mix was slightly different; peanuts and cheese, as usual, but also a half-pack of crispy bacon that had gone past its best-before date.
I had forgotten just how much Lardy Cat likes crispy bacon. Enough, it transpires, to sit there eating it off the grass while one of the fox cubs ate the rest of the food just a few feet away…
Apologies for the slightly lower quality of the photos than usual — the light was very marginal for the long lens and if I’d gone to get the tripod I think I would have missed the photos altogether! To give you some idea of the scale, the fox and the cat were probably no more than three or four feet apart.
As usual, click on any photo to enlarge, click again to close it.
Category: Uncategorized |
No Comments »
Tags: Behaviour, Photos
Posted By Foxy Lady on July 22, 2010
Just a quick post for you this evening – some photos from June 11th when one of the cubs wanted his or her full share of the limelight… Click on any photo to see a larger version, you know the drill by now.
Category: Uncategorized |
1 Comment »
Tags: Photos
Posted By Foxy Lady on July 20, 2010
My father — from whom we bought this house, and who is therefore the one to blame for the foxes’ den in the first place — has today sent me a copy of Both In It Together – A Farmer’s Life With Foxes written by John Carter.
It is a rather sweet little book, written by a farmer who has done battle with foxes over many years, but who also respects them and their lifestyle and would not indiscriminately kill them. The foxes he describes are definitely not urban (it’s written by a farmer, what do you expect?) but around his farm in Devon. Well worth a read if you want a slightly different, but not unreasonable, viewpoint on foxes and their lives. (The article linked above includes an email and postal address for more details about the book and also purchasing; it’s £5 in shops in the area, or £5.50 by post.
Category: Uncategorized |
1 Comment »
Tags: Books, Links, Talk
Posted By Foxy Lady on July 16, 2010
I wish I had some video of this particular interaction to share with you, but unfortunately not, you’ll have to picture it for yourselves…
In the garden, on the lawn: one of the fox cubs. (This particular cub seems to have taken to hanging out in the main visible bit of the garden during the morning and later afternoon/evening.) Also around and about, one of the local magpies, scavenging on the lawn for scraps of food, and occasionally heading up into one of the apple trees to squawk about something.
The magpie is not afraid of the fox. Every time the fox starts making a move towards the magpie, the magpie lets the cub get within a few feet and then flaps off a little way. We’re not talking any significant distance here… the two of them were circling the garden (which is not THAT big) for a few minutes. Eventually the fox gives up and lies down on the lawn – and at that point the magpie circles round behind the fox and starts pecking his tail (or remarkably close to it). This magpie is, essentially, teasing the fox.
At this point, Lardy Cat saunters out of the cat flap (Small Cat had been watching the proceedings with what I suspect was an air of feline bemusement). The fox backs off a bit — thinking the cat’s after him — but the cat has eyes only for the magpie. The magpie’s backing away from the cat, which would be towards the fox if it wasn’t for the fox also keeping back from the cat; there’s a minute or so of tension before the magpie decides that discretion is the better part of valour, or at least the better part of keeping your tail feathers, and heads back up into the tree.
This particular fox does not strike me as a Great and Mighty Hunter!
Category: Uncategorized |
No Comments »
Tags: Behaviour
Posted By Foxy Lady on July 15, 2010
Today’s photos are from June 9th. Then, as most usually today, one of the cubs was the first one out to check out the food that I’d left out; it’s not always the same cub, mind you. I think they have some kind of rota system organised from behind the bushes; I wonder if they’re taking food back for the vixen, or whether she just doesn’t need quite so much now that she’s not feeding the cubs (or at least not as much?) We do still see her coming out to feed but usually only at dusk (and thus not easily photographable, not with a long lens), not during the daytime as we did before.
One of the cubs had decided, yesterday night (around 2330 or so), that the middle of the lawn was the right place to take a nap. I don’t know whether he/she was trying to erase the smell of the cats, who tend to hang around in the same area during the day, or whether he/she is just that fearless? In fairness, the cats were indoors by that point so there wouldn’t have been anything else, bar other foxes and maybe one or two other neighbourhood cats, to disturb him/her.
Category: Uncategorized |
No Comments »
Tags: Behaviour, Photos
Posted By Foxy Lady on July 14, 2010
A few more photos from the archives for you, today; these are from June 3rd. It was a lovely evening here at Fox Towers, and the vulpine members of the community certainly seemed to be making the most of it.
Category: Uncategorized |
1 Comment »
Tags: Photos
Posted By Foxy Lady on July 13, 2010
BBC News has a story of a young fox rescued from the sea off Eastbourne (which has now made a full recovery)
Category: Uncategorized |
No Comments »
Tags: Links
Posted By Foxy Lady on July 12, 2010
Okay, a little over a month; these photos are from 2nd June, so at the point where the cubs’ fur had stopped being quite so fluffy and had smoothed out a bit, but before they really got to being the lanky teenage foxes that we see at the moment.
More photo posts to come over the next few days, and also I really must show you some more Foxcam footage! As usual, click on any photo to see a larger version, click on the result to close it back down again.
Category: Uncategorized |
No Comments »
Tags: Photos
![Garden Fox Watch: \"You stole my ears!\"](https://www.gardenfoxwatch.co.uk/wp-content/gallery/2010-06-02/img_1790a.jpg "Garden Fox Watch: \\"You stole my ears!\\"")
![Garden Fox Watch: \"Open up and say aaah!\"](https://www.gardenfoxwatch.co.uk/wp-content/gallery/2010-06-02/img_1684a.jpg "Garden Fox Watch: \\"Open up and say aaah!\\"")
