Red Foxes at St. Nicholas Church

Given that the weather forecast promised a dry and sunny morning with light winds, I again visited my Red Fox watching location.

“Watching” is a rather inaccurate description of what occurred in almost 1.5 hours. This proved to be an extremely disappointing session (also known as a complete waste of time) since there was not even the slightest hint of any Red Fox activity.

I eventually gave up but fortunately the Red Foxes did redeem themselves with sightings at various other locations. 

I saw my first Red Fox in the western section of the cemetery peering out from behind one of the gravestones and watching me carefully as I moved towards it. I think from the head shape that this was a dog (male) Red Fox. Here are a few photos of that individual ….

After a few minutes, it decided that I should not get any closer and it ran off but shortly afterwards I encountered it twice in quick succession in the central section of the cemetery.

I returned to St. Nicholas Church and immediately saw another Red Fox at the bottom of the grassy strip that runs parallel to Church Hill down to St. Nicholas Lane. I think this may have been one of the cubs due to its size but from recent sightings of the cubs, they are now almost the size of the vixen. Here are 2 very distant record shots ….

As I was watching that Red Fox, I heard a very quiet and indistinct "woofing" noise immediately behind me in the church car park. As I turned round, I saw the vixen and she then gave a much louder single alarm bark and ran towards cover. However, before finally disappearing in to the dense vegetation, she did stop and look back. This gave me the opportunity for one of my better photos in recent weeks.

💚🦆 🦉 🌼 🌳💚
Stay safe, stay well, stay strong, stay connected with nature