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.

So where were they?

Posted By on May 22, 2012

We were beginning to wonder, this year.

Mrs Fox — and it is the same Mrs Fox as last year — had been hanging around the garden and definitely interested in the food we put out. Mr Fox was also occasionally to be seen. So, too, to our surprise, was another vixen — somewhat smaller than Mrs Fox, but certainly tolerated by her; we saw them curled up together in the sun a couple of times, on those rare occasions when there was sun!

We could tell that Mrs Fox was suckling cubs (the nipples are pretty obvious), but where were the cubs? We did wonder if perhaps the den was in a different garden and if Mrs Fox and the other vixen were just nipping into our garden in search of food. It was getting on towards the end of April and still we’d seen no cubs — not even overnight on Foxcam.

Foxy Lady and her other half went on holiday for a few days, leaving Foxy Lady Junior (FL’s sister) in charge. It didn’t take long… it was only two days after we’d left that the excited email came through: “FOX CUBS!!!!”

Foxy Lady confesses that one or two rude words may have passed her lips at that point.

It soon became clear that it wasn’t just “cubs”, it was “LOTS of cubs”. In fact we have a total of six this year!

They seemed to be a bit further advanced when first seen than the previous years’ cubs. We aren’t sure whether this was because Mrs Fox simply didn’t let them out of sight for a while longer, there being more of them (those of you who were reading last year may remember that there were only two cubs back then). Alternatively, perhaps the truly foul weather during April — persistent heavy rain — kept them under cover. It may also be the case that their “home” territory seems to be a bit further across the garden and out of Foxcam’s view.

We’re not sure — but we’re glad they’re out and about now…

And so it begins….

Posted By on May 22, 2012

The very first sighting of this year’s cubs!

Press Photographer’s Year Exhibition

Posted By on August 18, 2011

On now until September 4th — and the picture that Time Out have chosen to illustrate it is of some very lovely fox cubs at the London Wildcare centre…

Interview online

Posted By on July 31, 2011

Foxy Lady has been interviewed by wildlife blog Wildwatcher.org!

Learning from domesticated foxes

Posted By on July 31, 2011

The Dog Zombie has posted an interesting roundup of research comparing domesticated foxes with their wild cousins. It’s worth a look if you’re interested in what makes the domesticated foxes different.

Rescued fox…

Posted By on July 30, 2011

I’m not entirely convinced by the wisdom of this, but the video is good:

Rescued fox reared with pet dog (BBC News)

Family snapshots

Posted By on July 29, 2011

Photos here from 9th May… one of the cubs decides to pose, Mum has a really thorough scratch, and even Dad turns up to join in the evening feed. (Doesn’t happen every day; he’s definitely still around at the moment, but not necessarily visible every day, unlike Mum and the cubs.)

Phew

Posted By on July 22, 2011

Three Counties still didn’t manage to get to me today, but I think I’m actually quite thankful about that. They did, however, talk to Penny Little of Little Foxes Wildlife Rescue who made many of the same points I would have done anyhow (for instance referring people to Bristol University’s very informational fox website) and probably did it significantly better than I would have done. Well done, Penny!

Family ties

Posted By on July 22, 2011

Again these are photos from early May. The cubs spent some time relaxing and watching the garden before having dinner and curling up with their mother…

Three Counties, take two

Posted By on July 22, 2011

Too busy on the phones for Three Counties to come to me yesterday, apparently, but they’re going to have another go today…