Since we moved to Adams Tower here in the wilds of Camberley three years ago, foxes have been a familiar sight (especially since our dear old spaniel Molly passed away). This year I’ve seen a pair together only once, but have seen more individual visitors at the front of the house… which isn’t surprising since that’s where I sometimes leave food out for them. I’ve twice seen a badger although they scuttle away very quickly as soon as the security light comes on. Foxes however are more bold, and we sometimes spend a few moments looking at each other before they grab the food and move to a safe distance.
A few weeks ago a mother walked across the raised flower bed outside our lounge, followed by a young one… not exactly a cub but probably not a year old. I’m fairly sure it’s the same one who came into the back garden today and grabbed a quick snooze during a five minute break in the rain.
Young foxy grabbed forty winks while I grabbed my new camera (Panasonic TZ65), he (or she) yawned, decided against a drink from the birdbath (it hadn’t had fresh water for a couple of weeks) and casually walked away. Half an hour later the youngster reappeared and sat for five minutes on the veranda of Lauren’s summer house, and then disappeared again.
Click on the picture for a bigger snapshot, and I may post a couple of photos of young ginger on the Wallpaper page.
That is lovely. We also have foxes, turkeys, etc. here in NH. but you got a lovely pic.
We too have foxes that visit. However because ours are Urban foxes (we live in Wimbledon) they often suffer from Sarcoptic Mange. However you can get free medicene for them from the National Fox Welfare Society http://nfws.org.uk/
Since we started treatmnent for our foxes, their tails have alomst grown back in. From the thin sticks they used to have, they are now getting quite fluffy. Here’s to the Foxes!
(Oh and as an added side benefit, the rats that used to infest our dustbins area have all vanished. I much prefer foxes over rats any day of the week)
It’s interesting – you see far more foxes, badgers etc. than we do, yet we live in the middle of the Hampshire/Wiltshire countryside. It does seem like these countryside critters are starting to prefer urban living – the food must be better, as well as the company 🙂
Although we’re only 10 minutes walk from Camberley town centre, there’s a lot of wooded areas here, so for foxes it’s a nice mixture of rural habitat and food supply (i.e. dustbins and left-overs). There is a badgers’ sett nearby, in fact it was a factor in blocking a development of some apartments.
If you go to Google Maps for the UK, do a search on ‘Chaucer Grove, Camberley’ you can see the amount of tree coverage between Chaucer Grove and Heath Rise. And then South East is Tekels Park, again, open land for wildlife.
@2 – thanks for that info. I’ve seen fox mange up close because our dog contracted it a few years ago, and it took hold very quickly – her ears went bald and her legs were raw. But it was cured very quickly once diagnosed.
One of our foxes has a thin bald tail, but the rest of him looks fine… but the sound of it he could be suffering from Sarcoptic Mange, so that info about the cure will be useful.
I know some people believe foxes to be a pest or even vermin. Foxes have as much right to live here as us. As I said in the ‘Hall of Shame’ on my old web site on the subject of fox hunting…
“There’s right and wrong ways of dealing with things… if a farmer is having a problem with foxes swiping and devouring his livestock, there are humane ways of dealing with the ginger mutts. What we don’t need is a bunch of chinless, in-bred, upper-class half-wits on horse-back pretending to be participating in a sport. Thumbs-up to hunt saboteurs, that’s what I say.”
When they banned hunting, I saw some woman on t.v. say “this is the worst day of my life”. Get a grip. Ask a fox about the worst day of his life and he’d say it was the day he was chased and torn to pieces by a pack of bloody-thirsty dogs.
Camberley? Heh. Only a few mins away from where I work (Egham).
I grew up in the countryside (Google Maps for “Martin Hussingtree”) and we had loads of chickens, geese, ducks etc. And yes, foxes there too. Its a simple premise that foxes are a) smart, b) relentless, c) given half a chance will desimate a chicken coop. So don’t give them a chance. It’s easy to prevent foxes from getting in at your livestock, just build the cages with foxes in mind. Same as you can stop them getting into your rubbish bins.
The problem is people. They’re lazy. Foxes have a benefit to your environment (they keep down the rodent pest population) but if you make it easy for them to get food from your rubbish bins, then they will go for the easy option. Most people don’t realise that they themselves are at fault, not the foxes.
Support your local fox!