Even more foxes

There were six foxes on the lawn yesterday - Mum, dad and four, yes FOUR cubs. I managed to get a photo showing three of the cubs. The smallest, shyest one was hiding in the bushes.

Poor Dad appeared with a very sore leg today. He was holding it up off the ground and wasn't using it at all. To add to his woes, Mum chased him off. I've never seen a three-legged fox run so fast. She also ran at her cubs and chased them off, too. Maybe she just wanted some 'me-time'. Just look at her flat out on the deck!

Young chaffinch

This poor little bird couldn't understand why it couldn't get at the water in the pond. It bobbed about the netting for ages, getting more and more frustrated, until it found a spot where the filter sent some spray into the air. Then it flapped its wings and had a shower.

Tiny mouse

Close this page now if you suffer from musophobia (fear of rats and mice). The other day Flad spent hours lying in one spot in the garden, staring fixedly at the decking. That night he didn't want his dinner. Next day I found this. A very small baby mouse. Dead. I think he ate the rest of the family and didn't have room for dessert! I'd much rather he killed rodents than birds, though. At least he's earning his keep!

Peanut thief

I wondered why the blue tits were hopping round the cherry tree looking most put out. I looked again and saw an empty feeder that looked a bit odd. When I got closer, I saw that the bottom was missing and all the peanuts had dropped out. An even closer inspection revealed that the wire had been forced and the bottom prised off.


I soon realised who the culprit must have been. This photogenic squirrel who had posed for me a few minutes earlier.

A stag on the washing line!

Here she is getting rather wet - and so was my washing, as I didn't want to disturb her.

What a shock I got when I went to unpeg my knickers from the washing line and almost put my hand on this fearsome beast! I feel quite sorry for her as the ideal conditions for mating involve warm, dry weather, not rain like we are getting now.

Stag beetles spend 3-5 years as a larva fattening up in rotting wood, then they turn into a pupa and finally hatch out around the end of May. They fly between May and August, not eating for this entire period and after mating, the female lays anything up to 90 eggs, often dividing them between several locations. After her task is complete, she dies, which makes me very glad I am human!

I think her antennae look just like the twirly moustache on the opera singer in the Go Compare ads!

Fox cub

Mother fox brought one of her babies to visit us yesterday. She walked right up to the patio doors, made eye contact with me, then walked away and sat in the centre of the lawn while the cub played around her. She wasn't asking for food, she was just showing off her baby. My partner thinks he glimpsed another through the hedge. I hope she brings both of them next time. I reckon this cub is male. Look at how dirty and scruffy it is!

More fox photos

The vixen has now got so brave and bold that she walks right up to the patio doors and sits down, waiting until she has caught my eye. Then she puts her head on one side and points her huge ears towards me, waiting to catch my soothing, "Here you are, dear," as I walk out with a peanut butter sandwich or a tin of dog food.

She usually drinks from the pond...



But yesterday I caught her playing peekaboo while lapping from the bird bath.