Our next door neighbour’s garden is like an overgrown jungle. She is an
enthusiastic birder, and it is good for the wild life. A couple of
months ago she excitedly asked whether we had seen the wood pigeons
nesting in her laurel “bush”. It is around twenty feet (6m) high.
Our
cat Phoebe, when we still had her (see last post), also loved the
neighbour’s garden. But, first thing one morning earlier in the year,
Phoebe shot back in to the house absolutely terrified, and hid under a
chair. She peered nervously round the corner as if expecting something
to be following her, and would not go out again for a few days unless we
were with her.
Then, in April, the night cam started to pick up this visitor, seen here on 13th May:
There have been several mentions of foxes on blogs recently, it must be a good year for them, but here on the edge of open countryside, we rarely see them in gardens. They seem to stay mainly in the woods and fields. We have proper country foxes here, not pampered urban ones bloated up on take away leftovers and fast food full of trans-fats and corn syrup.
We picked it up again a few more times, but then it seemed to stop visiting. There were reports on the village grapevine of a dead fox on the main road a short distance away. But, not to worry. It has started coming again.
Here it is again on two nights during the past week. What is in its mouth in last night’s part of the video? Do you need to take the feathers off?
If I had not turned round the camera it might have captured the pigeon being caught at it mopped up the spillage from the bird feeder which it just above the bushes in the first shot.
UPDATE - There is a later version (3 mins) of the video here: https://youtu.be/RfZPxSkYMAQ
UPF = ultra processed food. What is the world coming to when even the city bred foxes get fat? Your fox has very shiny eyes. Actually badgers are not amiss to a bit of baby rabbit, or even hens, which I found out one night. Luckily the hen squawked enough for me to rescue her.
ReplyDeleteThe shiny eyes are caused by the reflected UV light from the night camera. There has been the odd mention here of people losing chickens and pet rabbits from the gardens, but only one or two in 30 years. Pigeons I don't feel so sorry for.
DeleteWe often see a fox en route through our garden, from woodland to a neighbour's chicken shed, but haven't seen one on the return journey!
ReplyDeletePerhaps the chickens are eating the foxes.
DeleteHe's pretty bold. We used to see foxes out and about in the street at night when we lived down in Sussex. There are none over here. I expect it was too difficult to swim across the Irish Sea.
ReplyDeleteYou appear to have managed it, though. Are there no foxes at all in IoM?
DeleteNo, there are no moles or badgers either.
DeleteNot owning poultry anymore, I adore seeing foxes here but we just don’t . Rural foxes are much much shyer than their town counterparts
ReplyDeleteYou should get an IR night cam, John.
DeleteThat fellow has pretty good size, not like our little red country foxes. No wonder Phoebe was frightened.
ReplyDeleteWe estimate it is about 18 inches tall, the size of a small dog. We don't know where it is living.
DeleteBeware of hungry foxes!
ReplyDeleteIf it keeps down the pigeons and mice then that's OK.
DeleteI have seen a fox with a rat in it's mouth and also a worm. They are not purely destructive creatures and their cubs are beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI imagine it will leave once the weather turns.
DeleteThat is one of the best fox videos I have seen this year.
ReplyDeleteIt came again last night and we got an ever more impressive video, but I wish the IR light on the night cam was more powerful.
DeleteHe looks like a real country fox. My experience of urban foxes, when I lived for a few months in Bethnal Green in 2007, is that they were scraggy, thin and not nearly so sleek and did not have the beauty of the country fox. Also their boldness was not endearing.
ReplyDeleteIt can be hard to tell at this time of year, but I think it's a dog fox, too. We aren't encouraging it, though.
DeleteHey! Our London foxes aren't bloated! :)
ReplyDeleteNyurrr! Our foxes are better than your foxes.
DeleteI remember reading English hunters bringing back a brace of pigeons, and I always wondered how a couple pigeons would feed a crowd. Then I saw a wood pigeon once I got over there. They are a pretty big bird. No wonder your foxes are chunky. They are certainly well fed.
ReplyDeleteThey look big but I think they are mainly all air and feathers.
DeleteI like foxes, and it is a rare treat to see one here out on the fields or in the woods; they are usually rather shy.
ReplyDeleteApparently, in the area of Stuttgart city alone, there is a population of around 5,000 urban foxes. They used to be a problem for the zoo until safety fences were added, carrying electric current at ground level.
That's a lot of urban foxes and they probably can get into all but the most secure spaces. There must be a lot of discarded food about.
DeleteI suspect that your description of urban foxes was deliberately created to wind me up - like bait for a fox..."pampered urban ones bloated up on take away leftovers and fast food full of trans-fats and corn syrup"
ReplyDeleteIn reality, urban foxes are wily streetfighters with sharp survival instincts - unlike their country cousins that generally suffer from low IQ's due to interbreeding and excessive consumption of acorns and earthworms. In a fight, the urban fox would surely come out on top. Is fox fighting legal I wonder?
But it was good home-make wholesome leftovers that you threw out on your lawn. Your fox is clearly a healthy eater.
DeleteLast night I gave our fox a pea salad with mushroom risotto followed by panacotta and crystallised Yorkshire rhubarb.
DeleteThat fox is spoilt.
Delete