General Chat

I just got up from the computer to make a cuppa and noticed the outside security light was on, usually it's a neighbour's ginger and white cat, Basil, sneaking about to find titbits that the birds have thrown off the bird table.

Well what a surprise I got to see a different Basil, a Basil Brush lookalike, a beautful dark red fox!!! He was within a couple of yards of the house - he didn't see me watching him and I dashed to get my camera as he moved away from the house but alas, he didn't linger and was gone by the time I returned to the window.
I thought I had seen something larger than a cat with a bushy tail before outside but had never been able to see clearly enough before. This time because he triggered the light he was easy to see, hope he comes again and I can get a pic of him. it's very frosty here tonight - hope he finds some food somewhere.

Lizx

Have been hoping my hedgehogs are still alive, tucked away warmly somewhere.

My aunty used to get foxes in her back garden, and at night she used to be scared to go outside. I was suprised as she lived in an urban area. We don't get foxes here in NZ, but we get the adorable hedge hog. I love them (even though, as my mum tells me they are flea ridden). Our dog does not like them though, and when she goes outside for her "constitutional" I have to go with her, otherwise if one is in the garden she will kill it. Bad dog.

I had several hedgehogs visiting including baby ones last autumn and fed them well so they were strong enough to survive the winter, altho at that time I didn't know how cold it was going to get here in Norfolk UK. One of the neighbour's springer spaniels did get a young hedgehog and rip it to pieces tho, I was so upset. I am hoping at least three of my visitors will make it through to the spring and I don't mind if the fox visits again, in fact I am sure he has been before as on a few occasions I have smelled the strong foxy smell down near the compost bins.

Off to bed now, it's a quarter to seven in the morning here but o.h. has a bad cough and cold and I don't fancy sleeping next to him, with all his germs!

Bye for now
Lizxx

I am going to keep a careful watch tonight and have the camera ready, might try putting a few bits of ham out to tempt him back lol Just for photography purposes you understand, don't tell o.h. lol

Lizx

Liz, put an ark of pet hens outside and the fox will soon be there trying to kill them all.....speaking from experience here. We don't like foxes in our garden.

ahh liz that is wondefull, i would leave some food out for mr fox i love them , i havent seen any hedge hogs for ages and we live in the sticksxx

Helen, I wouldn't encourage him/her if there was livestock in any garden round her but no one has more than a couple of dogs, or a couple of cats and her cats are always in at night.

Puss, you missed the saga of my hedgehogs which I fed through from the late summer till November/early December I think, I had several different sized ones that would come most nights and feed, have lots of photos of them too.

Lizx

Haven't noticed the fox about any more altho I suppose he could have sneaked in - I have put food out for him or the birds and sometimes it has been gone by the time it becomes light so either a local cat or foxy being very quiet and missing the range of the security light.

Lizx

Being near to the edge of town we tend to get the odd fox wandering by.

About three weeks ago a very fit looking one went through the back garden, oblivious to the fact that there were three dogs in the house !

Like yourself, I was too late with the camera.

Last weekend there was a large pheasant down the end, once again it went over the wall before I could grab the camera.

There was acolony of yellow necked wood mice around here until our Tommy came to live with us.

I haven't seen one for a long time now.

We live in town but we still get foxes in the gardens.

Our neighbour has seen them very early in the mornings this winter, playing in the snow.

I used to see one particular fox every evening in the summer. I used to wait for him to pass by just after 11 pm. He would glance sideways at me as if to say 'Evening!'.

Birdi

O.h. has seen one on his way home when cycling from a late shift, but never before had one in the garden unless it was a fox before when I wasn't sure what was outside.

I am putting food down like a crust of bread soaked in fat from meat etc or similar things at night, well in the early hours and it's sometimes gone by morning light so he might be coming in without me seeing.

Lizx

It's probably rats eating all the food. I like them about the same as foxes.

We have a rat who comes and goes over the months, he will disappear for a while and then return, can bypass the trap but still get the stuff inside, he's clever! When I had the hedgehogs coming, there was a fieldmouse who appeared the night after the farmer had ploughed the field at the end of the garden, he was pinching peanuts from under the hedgehogs nose and scooting off with them - he must have stockpiled enough to keep him going over winter, I even got a photo of him sitting on the edge of the hedgehog dish. That's when I saw Ratty again just once pinching some peanuts, but he hasn't been around for ages, no signs that usually give him away like holes at the side of the shed going underneath the fence to next door!

No more signs of Foxy tho I think I heard him bark early the other morning.

Lizx