We've had very few real sightings of the foxes lately, but while I was outside taking the Pond Portraits I could hear the distinctive call of the foxes somewhere nearby. The shy white-tipped fox had been through the garden earlier in the day, and it seems she is gradually coming to dominate the territory. We get more sightings of her, brief as they are.
She tends to wait for me to disappear before venturing forth, and sure enough when I popped inside to get a fresh battery for the camera she appeared at the rear of the garden. I managed a single, distant shot of her. It was very grainy, so to recover anything usable the shot has suffered from some fairly heavy noise reduction. That's what gives it a somewhat artistic (some might think otherwise!) look. Anyway, it's the only fox shot for several days, so I'm going to post it!
I had one other relatively unusual sighting. A wet squirrel. This one was out in fairly consistent drizzle, the usually fluffy tail looking more like a length of frayed string.
Vulpes vulpes
21 Nov 2007Interesting – I wonder if the shy vixen is trying to 'out-fox' Ardent! :p Lovely pics.
anonymous
21 Nov 2007Nikki writes:
I thought she was Ardent's girlfriend? 😉 I'm glad that she's becoming braver though. She has such a sweet looking apple shaped head, very photogenic!
Flying Red Fox Blog
21 Nov 2007The lovelly thing about Foxes and Squirrels is their Brush, the Fox has a lovelly long white tipped one and the Squirrel brush is nicely curled up and flicked when running:D
Words
21 Nov 2007Mark, the squirrel's brush can be amazing can't it. That was why it was so odd to see this little one yesterday. Very bedraggled! But it seemed to be quite happy out there.
Words
21 Nov 2007Vulpes, this seems to be the pattern around this time of year. The local male goes awol (Christmas parties?), and the female starts to be a little bit more visible. The female seems to control the territorial choices. I can't be sure about that, but this is the third year where a similar pattern has emerged.
Words
21 Nov 2007Nikki, they are certainly siblings and have shared the same area all year, so you can never tell..
SittingFox
21 Nov 2007Poor squirrel! :eyes:
Nice to see the shy vixen. I'm starting to think that every fox group is different in how the territory is controlled. After all, we had the Old Dogfox actually expel the Fringe Vixen here last year. I think in his case, he was more worried about a competitor for food than finding the healthiest mate!
SittingFox
21 Nov 2007Yes, lots of adults and very little activity from young cubs. While I don't know where the earth is, obviously the evidence suggests that is a good way off. It would make sense, I guess, that the alpha vixen is more dominant around the earth. In wolves, it's supposed to be the alpha female who chooses the den site, but it's an important decision as it anchors the whole pack in one place for weeks, so it needs to be an area that is good for her mate to hunt prey for her. Foxes have things so easy compared to their big cousins 😉
Words
21 Nov 2007LOL! Sounds like an old dog fox! I've not been able to find too much about behaviour (other than uncertainty). In our case we are near the earth, so maybe that's a female territory. You seem to get lots of adults, so possibly a hunting ground. Who knows? But variety seems to be the order of the day.