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.

Feeling a bit limp

Posted By on September 2, 2010

One of the fox cubs — not Ears, who is still resident in the garden as far as I know, but one of the other two cubs who still occasionally visit the garden for food — has been limping over the last few days. He or she (let’s fix on “he”, otherwise this entry will be even longer and more stilted than usual) is getting around quite happily, but just not putting his right rear leg to the ground.

(Not the greatest photos, sorry; they’re screencaps off Foxcam and thus fairly low resolution, but I think you can see what I mean.)

I had a chat with Wildlife Aid to see if they had any suggestions. Since he is still quite mobile, we decided it wasn’t going to be a great idea to try to trap him; as he’s not coming to the garden that often, just for food, we’d be much more likely to get one of the other foxes (or one of the cats). Limping can be a sign of mange so I’ll put some mange treatment in the foxes’ food for the next while and see if that helps (he doesn’t appear to be scratching, though), and also keep an eye out to see if he shows up on Foxcam looking any less well.

I should also note that if he’s getting into the garden at all, he’s having to jump a reasonably high fence or gate to get in there, or else wriggle under a fence; there’s some level of agility required. Don’t worry, folks, we’ll keep you posted…

A couple of tidbits

Posted By on August 25, 2010

First of all, with a hat-tip to @Lofty_Jen on Twitter: A clever fox turned the tables on a photographer. That photographer was significantly more relaxed than I would have been if an animal started clambering over my tripod!

Secondly, not news as such, but one of the participants on PostCrossing, a postcard swap site, has a really impressive collection of fox postcards

Soggy

Posted By on August 25, 2010

No, it is not the foxes who are soggy — well, they probably are, but they’ve not been out much in the recent wet weather, and really, do you blame them? The garden is decidedly damp, though, and thus it’s much easier to dig holes in the lawn to bury your food in. If you’re a fox.

A quick peek at the overnight Foxcam footage from a couple of nights back revealed that one of the cubs we thought had moved on had returned for a visit — there were three small foxes enjoying the food instead of two. I assume it was another of the original four who had returned, otherwise there would have been ructions… Whether he or she is around again regularly remains to be seen.

I’m still working through the backlog of photos. Here are just a little set from mid-June (as in, over two months ago!). Yes, numbers two and three are different — just not very different…

For sale: one house, slightly foxed

Posted By on August 20, 2010

I note a story in today’s Coventry Telegraph about a lady who wants to make sure that whoever buys her house keeps feeding the foxes in her garden. Aww 😉 (with a tip of the hat to @joehewison on Twitter)

The best of friends (ish)

Posted By on August 19, 2010

A little more Foxcam footage for you, this evening, from a couple of days ago. The truce between the cats and the foxes really only works if the fox does not try to creep up on the cats; also, the two currently-resident fox cubs do still play with one another — or torment one another, which is probably about the same thing.

(more…)

Sharing the table

Posted By on August 13, 2010

I happened to glance at some of the Foxcam footage I pulled off the data card yesterday morning, and couldn’t resist putting these two up for you. See what I mean about the cats and the foxes coexisting?

(more…)

Relaxed fox

Posted By on August 11, 2010

The Evening Standard (and various other outlets) reports yesterday on a very relaxed fox spotted on a lilo in a pool… what next, foxes with cocktails?

Caring for orphan foxes

Posted By on August 10, 2010

If you’re enjoying our cute fox photos, you may also like this slideshow from the BBC from a few days ago. All together now — awwww….

Hose investigation

Posted By on August 9, 2010

Here are some photos for June 20th. The cub who I have mentally dubbed “Ears” (yes, I know I said I wasn’t going to name them, but (a) she’s still around and (b) she seems to have this habit of spending most of her time with her ears back) was checking out what remained of the garden hose. This was the hose which the cubs, between them, had thoroughly chewed; we have since acquired another one which lives on a hose reel rather than being left out across the garden 😉

Scroll on down for cute fox ears, fox tongue… generally cute foxage. (If that’s not a word, it should be.)

Journey to the centre of the earth

Posted By on August 5, 2010

Just a little set for you today, from June 18th. One of the cubs decided that one of the larger holes in our lawn was the most FASCINATING thing and decided to keep a watchful eye on it for a while….