Fox home

As I walked back from the shops early evening, down the track I kept an eye out for the foxes. I passed the garden that I thought they came from and there underneath a low hanging tree, just behind the wall was an adult fox, almost close enough to touch.

It watched me warily so I carried on back I home. I came back with my camera and as I expected it was gone.

This is where I saw the fox.

Fox family and swift flock

The foxes have begun to appear earlier in the evening - today the first appeared at 6.50am.

It was soon joined by the cub

The foxes were way down the track and the pictures taken on full zoom in low light so they are not brilliant quality.

After about 15 minutes the foxes trotted off and disappeared from view.

While this was going on a large flock of about 30 plus swifts screamed overhead. This maybe the nighttime aggregation as swifts flock together and cat nap on the wing at high altitudes. The nesting swifts next door may already have joined this group.

At 8.15pm the foxes reappeared down the track and were joined by a third fox, the other parent, possibly the male as he is bigger than the female. This one also has a bushier tail. The adult foxes seemed to be playing with the cub chasing each other. Eventually they disappeared again.

9.10pm and the foxes were visible in the gloom. Now the adults were actively hunting. The cub was investigating things but more, it seemed, out of curiosity. The cub came down to within about 10 feet of where I was standing at our wall. The fox eventually lay down on the track looking out towards the road. Then it sat up. I took the chance of taking a photograph using flash.

The reflection of the foxes eyes makes it look more alien in nature!

It did not seem to disturb the fox at all. I watched it for about another 10 minutes before it trotted back up the track. When I went back into the house, I could still see the shapes of hunting foxes in the track.

Return of the prodigal son (or daughter)!

A big surprise today. I looked up at the roof where the gulls were nesting and there was a young seagull.

At first I thought it might be one of the other gulls nearby, more developed and able to fly.

But watching this chick flapping and hopping around the roof it could not have flown there.

The chick is now very big, you can see here compared to a collar dove.

The chick must have jumped down from the chimney and onto the roof and been hidden on the otherside of the house. However, before it disappeared the chick was calling all the time but I have not heard a sound from there since it disappeared on 23rd June.

The chicks on roof out the front are all still there, these two well developed one and a smaller one in the gully.

Fox cub and bat

Just before 10.00pm the fox cub came trotting down the track, past me at the side gate and looked across the road. After a few minutes, it turned and trotted back up the track again.

I also watched the pipistrelle bats hunting in the track - there are a lot more visible moths around at the moment. On one occasion the bat circled a couple of times about 2 feet above my head before flying across our garden.

Fox cub and bat

A few weeks ago I suspected that I had seen two fox cubs in the back track (back entrance to houses) after dark. They could only be seen as black shapes as it was after dark, about the size of a small cat but not moving like one.

Last night at about 9.00pm, I looked down the track to see if the adult fox was around, or the bats that I had not seen since the neigbours cut their tree down.

Out of the gloom I noticed a tiny shape, following the edge of the vegetation. It crossed over the track and continued down to where I stood. It was a little fox cub.

Our house is right at the beginning of the track. The cub was sniffing and listening to the sounds from the road. The cub looked at me on  several occasions and then looked back towards the road. All of a sudden it turned round and scampered back up the track and into the gloom.

I kept a watch again this evening. One of the adult foxes on its usual route walked along our flint wall, from back garden to front, jumped down and made its way up the track.

When it reached a third of the way down, level roughly where I suspect it has a den, it turned and look back down the track towards me. While it stood there it was joined by a cub. You can just see the shape of the cub at the front of the adult fox, head pointing to the right.

Not a good picture as it was taken on full zoom at just before 9.00pm.

The adult fox slowly turned and headed off up the track, the cub trotting behind. It appears from this that their may only be one cub now.

I also saw one of the bats for the first time in ages. As it has got increasingly lighter in the evening through the spring, it has been increasingly harder to predict when they are on the wing - same problem last year.

A great day for butterflies

Having seen few butterflies this year so far, it turned out to be a great day for butterflies.

I think this is a male ringlet butterfly. The markings are a bit more striking than I have seen on other specimens but maybe this one has emerged recently as they usually fly July to August. This one in on the grass verge outside our garden.

This is a large skipper on our hydrangea bush

Another meadow brown, I think this is also a male

A small white on the lavender

A comma butterfly also on the lavender

You can clearly see the white mark on the underside of its wing which gives this butterfly its name 'comma'

I decided to check on the other herring gull family. They have 3 chicks.

These two are getting some shade from the chimney

The third chick is smaller and weaker.

I looked back at the house and watched the swifts skim head height over our garden

The herring gull saga continues

The gulls are still sitting on the nest, even thought they now have no chicks.

Later I saw and heard what appeared to be courtship behaviour.

This was followed by one of the parents collecting nesting materials and bring it back to the nest

The other adult would the use its feet to push the materials into position.

Sadly, I don't think its possible for them to have another clutch this year, seabird generally only have one chance.

The pair were very wary of everything and would take to the air and shout in aggression circling before eventually settling back down again.