Wildlife & Gardens

Urban foxes cause damage and spread disease, please don't feed them. They'll also store for later what they don't need now and that can encourage rats.

 

Possibly, but my foxes aren't urban foxes.

 

How do you know?

Bus fares are cheap at the moment, m8.

 

They told me.
The fact that we live in a small rural village and the foxes come after dark from the surrounding fields and countryside.

 

Got my new trail cam set up - lots of nocturnal visits from foxy loxy.

 

Often put the trail cam out to catch the foxes, small mammals and birds in the garden, but last week caught a savage cat fight between our rescue and an interloper.

Our cat, a whopping 5.3kg of absolute nutcase, made multiple attacks on the interloper, who, fair play to the lad, stood his ground on multiple occasions before finally fleeing over the fence. The noise was horrific. Our cat, scratched nose and ear, cut to the back of the head, appeared very pleased with himself.

 

Ouch!
There's always a lot of shouting and swearing in cat fights/stand offs.

I hope both are ok?

 

I think so. Plenty of scratches, but no serious injuries, despite the flying leaps and tumbling into a ball of flailing claws together.

The RSPCA suggested he would be territorial, having only been neutered when ‘rescued’. But most of the time he is a complete pussy cat. He even made friends with next door’s kitten and they hang out most days.

 

It sounds like he’s grooming that kitten. Probably why he was banged up in cat jail in the first place.

 

Sounds like a pwoper nawty tear up.

 

That’s our cat you’re talking about

 

Yep. I blame the parents.

 

Of all the ungrateful little bleeps. We feed the gulls and now I find one sitting in my pond trying to eat the goldfish.

 

Only takes a cat three days to train a human!

 

A few other small file size photos from Japan...

Black woodpecker, Lake Abashiri, Hokkaido, Japan
Blakiston's fish owl, Washi No Yado, Hokkaido, Japan
Common cuckoo, Notsuke peninsula, Hokkaido, Japan
Grey-bellied bullfinch, Okuniwa Nature Trail, Mount Fuji, Japan
Japanese white-eye, Kyoto, Japan
Long-tailed rosefinch, Onnenai, Hokkaido, Japan
Luna Moth, Washinoyado lodge, Rausu, Hokkaido, Japan
Narcissus flycatcher, Gasthof Papilio, Lake Kussharo, Hokkaido, Japan
Northern boobook, Kyoto, Japan
Red fox, Gasthof Papilio, Lake Kussharo, Hokkaido, Japan
.

 

....and finally a few more...
Red squirrel, Gasthof Papilio, Lake Kussharo, Hokkaido, Japan
Red-crowned crane, Hokkaido, Japan
Siberian rubythroat, Lake Furen, Hokkaido, Japan
Sika deer, Hokkaido, Japan
Ussuri brown bear, Shiretoko NP, Hokkaido, Japam
Ussuri brown bear, Shiretoko Pass, Hokkaido, Japan
Ussuri brown bear, Shiretoko Pass, Hokkaido, Japan
Ussuri brown bear, Shiretoko Pass, Hokkaido, Japan
White-tailed eagle, Lake Furen, Hokkaido, Japan
Sea otter, Hanasaki Lighthouse, Nemuro Peninsula, Hokkaido, Japan

 

You take some incredible photos UDT

 

Who's this UDT imposter of whom you speak @Sting?? .
Thanks....

 

tut tut sorry

 

Some very nice shots. I particularly like the closeup of the bear. Looks like he’s thinking “I’ve got my eye on you Gino.”

 

He certainly had his eyes on us. We were standing by our car having been flagged down by some excited cyclists! He was probably only 50 feet away.

 

Saw Foxy and one of her cubs last night.
Both looking good and she's recovered since her episode a month or so ago.

 

Anybody got any idea of how to keep the squawking flying green rats off bird feeders? They can empty everything in half an hour. They used to be an exotic novelty, but now the noisy bastards are getting seriously tiresome.

 

Some of the squirrel proof feeders might have small enough gaps in the bars to stop them, esp if the bars are far enough away from the food so they can't reach it from outside the bars ? Otherwise you can use chicken wire but that can also prevent woodpeckers being able to access the feeders. I have to use chicken wire to stop the sparrowhawks. It can look ok if you create a neat aviary like rectangle.Otherwise I think you're stuck with them. You could remove the feeders for a couple of weeks but they are as likely as any other bird to re-find them when you put them back. Fortunately parakeets haven't reached Tring/Wigginton yet.

 

Put out some pasta late last evening to try to capture foxes or whatever overnight but the gulls and crows were down in a flash

 

Yes magpies too. The key for me is to put food down after dark. Birds call it a day when the light goes so only foxes, badgers, deer etc should be around. Failing that put a large plastic plant pot over the food which keeps the birds off, and the foxes will eventually learn they can just lift the pot off and get the food underneath .....and provide lots of funny videos circling the pot until they do !

 

PS i put out half a sachet of cat food plus any meat, fruit and out of date eggs that would otherwise be thrown/recycled.

 

Do you leave the eggs intact or break them? I tend to throw them so they break but now wonder if it might be interesting to see how anything handles eggs whole

 

I leave them whole and close to the camera and get nice video of the fox grabbing them and running off with them. Again, needs to be after dark though or magpies etc will just break and eat them...

 

Foxes and crows are so rude like that - they take food away with them.
Best video I ever took was when we threw some chipolatas out one evening and a fox came and delicately managed to gather half a dozen in his mouth before running off - took a lot of time and effort getting them arranged but he managed it

 

Best to feed them at the same or similar time each night too. I sit there with the cat each night on the patio and they are usually eating within 5 mins as they wait in the bushes, sometimes on the lawn. I bring it forward a little each evening as nightfall comes earlier. Lots of videos of them coming too early, checking the roof tiles (what I use to put the food on) and then looking up at the house to see if there's any movement. I've had some great videos of foxes interacting at night, cubs suckling, deer, badgers etc. The best things I've seen in the garden was a weasel which sadly bypassed the camera. I was on a work call and immediately hung up, grabbed the camera and got a few photos before it disappeared.

 

Yes I leave mine whole too.
My neighbour used to crack one over the bowl of dog food she put down,to keep off any cats.