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.
Posted By Foxy Lady on May 5, 2010
After a sunny afternoon’s play, you’d think that these cubs would be tired out and ready for sleep… or not. No, they spent much of the evening dashing round and rolling over one another as well. (They did seem a little less busy than usual overnight, at least.)
Posted By Foxy Lady on May 5, 2010
The foxes decided to come out and play in the sun a little earlier than usual yesterday — they were out on the lawn not long after noon. Of course this was the point where I needed to be somewhere else! Still, Foxcam has captured some nice footage of them romping around and being their usual cute selves…
Posted By Foxy Lady on May 4, 2010
Don’t foxes look pretty with the sun on their fur? (Even more than usual, I mean.)
(As usual, click on any photo to enlarge it, and click anywhere on the resulting larger photo to close it again.)
Posted By Foxy Lady on May 4, 2010
The Art of Pouncing is a difficult art to master, as a young fox cub. There’s no Mr Miyagi-alike who comes along and makes you move one paw at a time to improve your coordination (or at least, if there is a Mr Miyagi for foxes, he’s invisible to Foxcam). So it means that the cubs spend a fair amount of time practising on one another… one, two, three, POUNCE!
Posted By Foxy Lady on May 3, 2010
In daylight the lawn is just a lawn, full of interesting flowers, other foxes to chase, holes to dig (… I rather wish they wouldn’t…), fascinating smells, and maybe the occasional bit of last night’s food.
At night, though, the lawn comes alive with UNEXPECTED SPIKY THINGS. Or, in other words: as well as the cats, the foxes have to share “their” garden with hedgehogs…
Posted By Foxy Lady on May 2, 2010
I’ve moved FoxCam round a little bit, as the irises growing in the pond (the taller foliage that you may have noticed in previous videos) were starting to get in the way of seeing the foxes clearly. Instead of being attached to an upright pillar forming part of an arbour, it’s now tied to the bird table. Hopefully the birds won’t mind… especially as the bird table has been moved further down the garden in pursuit of better imagery, too. (Its original location was a little bit too far away from where the foxes were for the infrared light to illuminate them enough for the videos.)
Posted By Foxy Lady on May 2, 2010
The BBC have an article asking whether animals should have a right to privacy from being filmed. It’s a slightly interesting question, although if the animals don’t know they’re being filmed, are they actually going to care?
As far as Garden Fox Watch goes, we’re not filming or photographing the foxes other than when they are visible from the house or the main part of the garden anyway. One could argue that the foxes are trespassers and thus have given up any right to privacy anyhow! Or should the (deliberately-placed) hole under the shed be considered as an “attractive nuisance“?
I don’t think I’ll be needing to put up a notice about our use of CCTV, anyhow; foxes can’t read 😉
Posted By Foxy Lady on May 1, 2010
The foxes always prefer sunshine — or at least they come out to play during the day more often when it is sunny (and do we blame them?) Today was a bright day, and the foxes took full advantage. Poor Mum was trying to have a nice rest, but the cubs really weren’t having any of it…
(As usual, click on any photo to enlarge it, and click anywhere on the resulting larger photo to close it again.)
Posted By Foxy Lady on April 29, 2010
I thought, before today, that we had three cubs in our foxy family. But this appears not to be the case; count the sets of little glowing eyes in last night’s first video… And in the second, one of the cubs learns that his mother’s tail is NOT a chew toy.
(Click on “more” to view the videos.)
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