I've been waiting all evening for the dog fox to arrive, but so far he's decided to give us a wide berth. Earlier I was quite hopeful. Clear skies, and barely a breeze. Perfect, I thought. That's all changed, and over the last hour we've had bursts of heavy showers and severe gusts. Not the kind of weather we need.
We did have a false alarm in the early part of the evening. We spotted a fox at the side of the garden pond, rushed to get the treated food; but it turned out to be one of the other foxes. And a shy one at that. It didn't hang around, scooting to the rear of the garden as soon as it spotted us. Judging from its brush (which was in good shape, bar a slight bend at the tip) it may well have been Kinky, the vixen from last year. And that is excellent (if unconfirmed) news.
Much earlier today I saw something that came as a bit of surprise… a sparrowhawk being chased by a crow. They were some distance away, but for most of the time the crow was doing the chasing. In the one photo I managed, the sparrowhawk is dipping down below the crow just before it decided to turn away into clear sky.
Here's a slightly better shot I grabbed a few minutes later when it came back across the gardens.
And still no sign of the fox…