Monday 11 January 2010

Garden Fox Update

If you look in the archives for a post dated 22/12/09 entitled New Hythe and Garden you will see a picture of a fox taken during the day while I was watching a heron in a tree at the bottom of my garden. He/she, (I like to think it's a she) came over the garden fence from the lake as I sat on the patio snapping away at the heron. She was quite scrawny and her tail was a mess if she doesn't mind me saying so. She was quite tolerant of me and made no attempt to leave the garden after she had spotted me, anyway, since that day I have been feeding her every night, just to try and help her through the bad weather. In return she has provided me and Carol with some entertainment every evening, sometimes in the form of running round the garden and playing in the snow and other times in showing us how she and her kind survive the winter by eating enough food for the time being and burying the rest in various places , in the borders some nights and just in the snow around the garden at other times, it's been fascinating watching her bury her prize and use her snout to cover it over for consumption at a later time and I think this behaviour also explains the occasional duck eggs that we have found in flowerpots or buried in the lawn over the years.

Anyway, hear she is below, tucking in to some dog food the other night, sorry about the pic but it's through the patio doors and it's dark and.........it's me taking it! You can see she still has a scrawny tail but I think she may have put on a bit of weight, or is that wishful thinking. As I was typing this I heard the familiar cry of "foxy's here" from the lounge and there she was tucking in to dinner (the fox that is not Carol).






Other garden news today was a moorhen, strutting around under the laurel tree, turning over the fallen leaves very contentedly and obviously finding some tasty morsels because it stayed until about 2 o'clock this afternoon before presumably returning to the lake. Again, sorry about the picture, excuses this time are as follows; long distance (big garden), bad light, through the window..................and it's me taking it. Clicking on the picture might help.








1 comment:

Forest the Bear said...

Phil, its great to have large mammals visit your garden, I find they love a jam sandwich or two and love to see them. It is amazing how attached you can get to a wild animal, you miss them and worry if they don't turnup one night!

Checkout Sharon's blog @ (weeklytweet.blogspot.com) she has a video of a fox and badger feeding together in the garden, I did not think they would feed so close together.

Forest the Bear