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.

Getting some exercise

Posted By on May 6, 2010

The cubs were particularly active during the day today, spending quite a long while chasing one another round the lawn, tumbling over one another, play-fighting and generally getting under their mother’s feet.

(As usual, click on any photo to enlarge it, and click anywhere on the resulting larger photo to close it again.)

Night of the 5th/6th

Posted By on May 6, 2010

Again, the cubs are learning how to deal with hedgehogs… or how not to deal with them:

MEMO

To: Fox Cubs
From: Foxy Lady

Don’t pounce on the hedgehog. You won’t enjoy it. Really.

FL

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Evening of the 5th

Posted By on May 6, 2010

The cubs and their mother were, once again, quite visible during the evening of 5th May. They enjoyed a pleasant dinner on the lawn and then a little light playtime…

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Evening of the 4th

Posted By on May 5, 2010

After a sunny afternoon’s play, you’d think that these cubs would be tired out and ready for sleep… or not. No, they spent much of the evening dashing round and rolling over one another as well. (They did seem a little less busy than usual overnight, at least.)

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Afternoon delights

Posted By on May 5, 2010

The foxes decided to come out and play in the sun a little earlier than usual yesterday — they were out on the lawn not long after noon. Of course this was the point where I needed to be somewhere else! Still, Foxcam has captured some nice footage of them romping around and being their usual cute selves…

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Another nice day…

Posted By on May 4, 2010

Don’t foxes look pretty with the sun on their fur? (Even more than usual, I mean.)

(As usual, click on any photo to enlarge it, and click anywhere on the resulting larger photo to close it again.)

The Art of Pouncing

Posted By on May 4, 2010

The Art of Pouncing is a difficult art to master, as a young fox cub. There’s no Mr Miyagi-alike who comes along and makes you move one paw at a time to improve your coordination (or at least, if there is a Mr Miyagi for foxes, he’s invisible to Foxcam). So it means that the cubs spend a fair amount of time practising on one another… one, two, three, POUNCE!

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Unexpected spiky things

Posted By on May 3, 2010

In daylight the lawn is just a lawn, full of interesting flowers, other foxes to chase, holes to dig (… I rather wish they wouldn’t…), fascinating smells, and maybe the occasional bit of last night’s food.

At night, though, the lawn comes alive with UNEXPECTED SPIKY THINGS. Or, in other words: as well as the cats, the foxes have to share “their” garden with hedgehogs…

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A new point of view

Posted By on May 2, 2010

I’ve moved FoxCam round a little bit, as the irises growing in the pond (the taller foliage that you may have noticed in previous videos) were starting to get in the way of seeing the foxes clearly. Instead of being attached to an upright pillar forming part of an arbour, it’s now tied to the bird table. Hopefully the birds won’t mind… especially as the bird table has been moved further down the garden in pursuit of better imagery, too. (Its original location was a little bit too far away from where the foxes were for the infrared light to illuminate them enough for the videos.)

A fox’s right to privacy…

Posted By on May 2, 2010

The BBC have an article asking whether animals should have a right to privacy from being filmed. It’s a slightly interesting question, although if the animals don’t know they’re being filmed, are they actually going to care?

As far as Garden Fox Watch goes, we’re not filming or photographing the foxes other than when they are visible from the house or the main part of the garden anyway. One could argue that the foxes are trespassers and thus have given up any right to privacy anyhow! Or should the (deliberately-placed) hole under the shed be considered as an “attractive nuisance“?

I don’t think I’ll be needing to put up a notice about our use of CCTV, anyhow; foxes can’t read 😉