Well-behaved foxes

Just recently, on my blogoversary posting, I showed you some photos of a family of foxes which we saw on the railway bank, beyond the garden fence. The photos were really just record shots, and I was really hoping to see them again and get some better footage/photos. Well, we were in luck as we saw the following unfold in the garden yesterday morning...




Yep, at about 7:45, we saw an adult fox visit the garden in full view from us in the house. It had jumped over the fence at the end of the garden and trotted down the garden path. Thankfully, my camera was already on my tripod next to me, and I took one photo and one video. It was so well-behaved that it even took a drink from our new pond. I was expecting to see the odd frog visit the pond, not a fox drinking from it in broad daylight.

After taking a drink, it had a wander around the swing and looked inside the new fenced-off wildlife area. Unfortunately, my camera ran out of memory card space just at the wrong moment, and cut out halfway through the clip. The fox stayed for another 30 seconds or so, before running back down the garden and jumping the fence again. So, no cubs this time, but I was still thrilled to see the adult fox as I got up in the morning.

Whilst the video is slightly blurry after being uploaded, I was still really chuffed to get such close-up images of it. If you remember, the last photos I got of the foxes weren't great because of the poor light conditions, but I certainly didn't have that problem yesterday morning. I hope you like the still photo too. Its still not the greatest, but probably the best I'm ever going to get.


After watching the video a couple of times and looking at the photo, I noticed that the fox isn't very big and has blackish fur in some places. I wondered if this was actually an adult at all, or whether it is an older cub (from last year maybe). Either that, or its just an adult who isn't eating enough to stay healthy. This could be why it visited our garden- to look for any food scraps available.

I wonder if these foxes visit at night too. The fox did seem to go straight for the pond, as if had visited it a few times before. Obviously, its hard to tell if they have visited, but occaisionally, we get muddy footprints appearing around the garden in the winter. I suppose our two pet rabbits are probably a bit of a target for the foxes, especially in the winter when less food is around.

It is great to see that foxes appear to be doing well in sub-urban environments like ours, and there are certainly plenty of them around. Maybe an infra-red night camera would help to show us what happens in the garden at night.

Sorry about the slight lack of postings just recently. In the summer holidays (only a couple of weeks away now) I hope to post more often. I look forward to reading all your blogs too as the warm summer continues.

One today

Today, as you will see on the little gadget in the sidebar is the one year mark for my blog. I have really enjoyed blogging and sharing my wildlife sightings with all of you. Thanks once again for the Countryfile nomination and for visiting my blog in the last year.

In this posting to round off the blogging year I thought I would include a story of a mammal I was certainly surprised to see recently. As you may know, at the end of our garden is a railway line. Well, on the railway bank last week, my sister spotted some movement from her bedroom window. She pointed it out to me and, through the binoculas we saw a family of foxes!

So, we wandered down the garden for a closer look. I had my camera with me so that I could take any photos. We walked slowly up to the fence to see an adult fox plus 4 playful cubs. The adult watched us whilst the youngsters rolled around without a care in the world. The adult (didn't know whether it was a male or a female) seemed to be ok with me watching about 15 metres away. I got a few photos, but they are blurry because of the poor light. Honest, it was the poor light!

Just record shots but the 1st one is the best.

We watched the youngsters play-fighting (see below), and I couldn't help thinking, "that must hurt"! Again, blurry shots though. It was so great to see such a healthy family playing around. We have seen cubs on the railway bank in previous years, but definitely pre-blog. It could be that I won't see this family again for another couple of months at least. I suspect we will definitely see some more of the adults in the garden in the cold winter looking for any food scraps.

So there it is, 1 year of blogging. I really look forward to year 2, even if it is somewhat disrupted by my exams! Happy blogging and have a good week!

Strange Fox sighting

Yesterday, at around 08:00, in broad daylight, I spotted a rather thin looking fox trotting across the back garden. It had a half-hearted attack on a ground-feeding pigeon (which flew off without injury), and took a look at our pet rabbits before casually walking back to the end of the garden. It then jumped the fence at the end. All of this happened within a minute, and couldn't manage to take a picture of it. If I see it again, I will have a camera within arm's reach. I think it may have been a juvenile, as it was quite clumsy. I have seen a family of foxes on the railway bank at the end of the garden in the past, and i did once see one stood on top of the rabbit hutch.
Will hopefully post something to do with some of our garden reptiles soon.