URBAN(E) FOX
Category: ANIMALS
HOGLET
An inspired way to display an exhibit, at child level, in the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford
DELAYED POST
This blog was started in 2012 and was originally intended to be an omnium gatherum of specific and conceivably interesting categories. The menus below mostly had sub-menus. The blog was a spin-off from a more time-consuming effort that took priority.
I never posted very regularly, and I didn’t promote the site. Looking back at my stats, I can’t help noticing that, even by 2015, I was excusing myself for long gaps between posts. I see that 2017 was the last year that I made regular posts. In the last 5 years there have been 30 short posts – none at all for the last 2 years.
It could easily be argued (I do so with myself sometimes) that I should quietly put the blog out of its misery and delete it. However, several thousand people a year visit the site and possibly find something of interest, entertainment – or even the exact thing they are looking for.
So I have decided to leave things as they are, at least for the time being. And thanks to those who have visited, even if only once…
If you are interested in Sundials of all kinds and / or Medieval Churches, there’s a properly working blog HERE
If you have an interest in natural history elsewhere in the world – birds, reef fishes, marine mammals – try HERE
DOG FOX IN THE CITY – RUS IN URBE
In the leafy inner ‘burbs of the big city, fewer than 5 miles from Hyde Park Corner, foxes are now commonplace. No longer are they lone scavengers skulking down the road at dawn and dusk and lying low during the day. Now they treat gardens as their own, fences as their walkways, and flowerbeds as their… well, let’s not go there.Â
We generally see foxes several times a week, singly or a pair sauntering down the street, in transit along the fences, or resting in the sun at the end of our garden.
They are not particularly bothered by us unless we make a noise. At this time of year, their nocturnal yowling can be astonishingly loud – a reminder that these are wild creatures that have made themselves at home in the city – and indeed in our garden – for their mating rituals.
We were abroad for a couple of weeks last month. The day we got back, this fine fox was in our garden. These photos were all taken through the kitchen window. The fox knew perfectly well that I was there, but I couldn’t risk the noise of opening the French windows into the garden for a clear shot.Â
While we were away, a child from a neighbouring garden must have thrown or hit a ball over the fence. The fox had it by him. I watched for at least 20 minutes as he played with it, patted it, chewed it, chucked it in the air, and rolled over on his back pushing it through the grass with his nose with all 4 legs in the air. He behaved in fact just like a dog. A dog fox.
By coincidence, an article about urban foxes (and fox merchandise) was published in the Guardian online yesterday. It’s a good read, and contains the fact – which I did not know – that foxes are one of the few species that will hold eye contact with a human. You can read the article HERE.
FOXES SETTLING IN FOR THE SPRING
Snowdrops. Tiny harbingers of spring. An eerie barking and screeching in the night – another sure sign, even in West London. It’s been building up over the past couple of weeks. The scrabbling sound as large creatures scale garden fences. The noisy stand-offs, the come-ons, and the face-downs as the vulpine sap rises. Listening at night, I reckon there are 4 foxes involved. I’ve often seen a single animal in the garden lying in a warm patch of sunlight, or sneaking behind the shrubs, or loping down the street in broad daylight. I’ve watched a small cat in our garden stand its ground and then chase away a fox with a clatter over the fence. But until today, I’d never seen a pair comfortably settled on the edge of the lawn.
These photos were all taken through glass. By the time I’d managed to open the French windows (silently, I thought) to get a better shot, they were off. Until tonight, no doubt.
  
DARCY WITH BUTTERCUPS
JACOB SHEEP, DORSET: THE MOWERS ARE BACK
Until the beginning of the year we had some beautiful DORSET SHEEP in the field. They arrived last summer with their lambs, carefully numbered but rather random in their choice of maternal feeding station. They had a guest to stay, the RAM. Then they were left to themselves for the winter before being relocated to allow the grass to recover.
This time last year our son’s wedding took place in the field, and it had been smartened up for the purpose (Mrs RH and I had our wedding reception in the same field nearly… erm… x0 years ago). This spring, the grass has grown lush and replete with buttercups, ready for the next ovine mowers to graze. They arrived last weekend, 6 freshly shorn adult Jacobs with their 10 lambs between them. Here are some studies of the one I want (perversely) to call Daisy, with her lambs…Â
A TINY FROG IN DORSET
I was lying on the grass for rustic maintenance reasons when something small and greeny-yellow leapt onto my hand. And off again quickly. A tiny frog, dwarfed by mere pea-gravel, yet perfectly formed. It wasn’t in a hurry so I ran indoors, grabbed a camera, and had a leisurely photo session with it. I assume it’s just a juvenile common or garden frog Croakus vulgaris frequentis, but if anyone knows different I’d be pleased to know. You can see me reflected in the frog’s eye in the header image.
THE FROG HAS PICKED UP A COMPANION
SIZE COMPARISON WITH A LAWN DAISY
BOTTLENOSE DOLPHINS (WITH CALF)
I recently photographed a group of dolphins and posted about them on my main blog (see Sidebar for link). They were not in UK waters, but since Bottlenose Dolphins are also common around the UK coast I thought I’d post a few of the images here as well, with apologies for the few followers who bravely tolerate both blogs…
DORSET SHEEP: THE RAM, READY TO PLAY THE FIELD…
Sheep supposedly have peaceful, grazey lives. Counting them is allegedly soporific. But in reality they lead busy and productive lives. No sooner do they lamb than it’s time for the circle of life to begin again for them. In the evening sunshine the field gate swings open. A truck’s catch is slipped. Enter the ram, harnessed for action to mark his conquests and raring to go…Â
Some photos were taken after the ram had been investigating the 7 ewes in the field rather closely. Two had lambed, 5 were pregnant. The ram is demonstrating a FLEHMEN RESPONSE – see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flehmen_response which explains it better than I can, and with a particular reference to sheep.
ROLLING HARBOUR GALLERY 
