On a night like this...

I aplogise for not updating for a while. My baby daughter has not been sleeping very well the last few nights, which has made fox spotting almost impossible. Tonight has been the first time I have been able to spend watching out for Foxy.

I decided to try a bit of chicken tonight as well the the usual dog food. I set the camera up about 10ish expecting to be in for a wait but while I was setting up the camera I saw him stalking in a neighbors garden. He was going back and forth into next door back garden. I got a little worried as it wouldn't take much for a fox to scale the fence between our gardens and of course my two rabbits would make a lovely meal.

I ran to the back and checked everything over, had he been in there or not? The only clue was a small windmill we have in the back garden that was spinning round. There wasn't much wind tonight and certainly not enough to get it to spin like it was. Had the fox jumped back over the fence when I had turned on the back garden light causing the draft to spin the windmill? I'm not sure and I dont really want to place food in the back in case it does draw him in. Casting my mind back a few months though and I remember finding an off feces in the back garden that was cetainly not cat (I have three cats and know what there poo looks like believe me).

Perhaps a night checking out the back garden would be useful on the of chance that he is in fact enjoy both. The chance of him going after my rabbits? I think it's slim as taking them would involve a lot of effort and he certainly isn't going hungry.

On the menu tonight...

We had a spare pork chop left over from dinner tonight, and so Fox got a bit extra to go with his dog food. He seemed to enjoy it and actually left the dog food in the bowl (I guess we'd all choose a pork chop over dog food)...

There is still only the single visitor to our garden though which is proving to be a mystery. Where is that second fox we saw a few nights ago.

Return Of The Wolf...

There was no action over the weekend, at least none that I was able to record I was away from home for one night.

Had an awful moment of panic when we were driving down the road we live on, as at the side of the road hit by a car/bus was a fox. It was a sad sight to see, made even worse by the fear that perhaps this was our garden visitor. Prongs of guilt set in as I started to worry if maybe my feeding had led to this accident, and not being able to film that night made it even worse as I wouldn't be able to check if it was in fact our Fox or not.

Luckily tonight the Fox did return, and I was able to breath a sigh of relief. Unfortunately 1000's of foxes are killed each and every year in the UK by cars. In the countryside I can believe it is an easy mistake to make, but in towns and cities with so much light I imagine it's either down to carelessness or speed that kills them. Of course I am sure there are some sick people out there who may even try to hit them on purpose...

Eggs over easy...

It would seem the eggs are a success and I need a new VHS...

I had the new system set up since 8ish and had tested it 3 or 4 times to make sure I could record onto VHS the direct feed from the Cam, and it worked every time. It got to 1:30am and Foxy still hadn't made an appearance (although something had eaten a whole bowl of dog food earlier in the night). I set the VHS to record and went to bed. As normal I didn't go to sleep but kept checking for any apperance of the fox. Around 2am he turns up and starts to eat the dog food. I'm left with a choice, I could I sneak down stairs and press record on the Cam to ensure I have a digital copy or leave the VHs running. Thank god I went for the first option as for whatever reason (lets call it "doh!") the VHS wasn't recording the feed correctly.

I have though got too nice shots of the fox taking the eggs I left out. He took the first and vanished and returned some 10 minutes later for the second. He's left the third, maybe he's full from the bowl of food and two eggs...

Remote system...

I have set up a new system so I can be more effective at spotting the foxes. I have a live camera feed running directly to the main TV in the living room. This way I can detect any movement straight away, hopefully getting me a better shot. I am also running the feed through the VHS in which I am going to have a tape recording so if I do miss anything I should be able to check in the morning.

Still not happy with the clarity of the picture though as even with the "nightshot plus" it is still a dark shot. I am wondering if those solar garden lights would improve the shot at, at the very least it would remove the dark shadows created by the hedge. Of course will they deter the foxes somewhat or will the food prove too much of a lure?

Home on the range...

Apparently urban foxes have a much shorter home range than rural cousins. This is not as obvious as you might think. There is no shortage of food for the urban fox even in winter, and while there is plenty of space there is stiff competition for day time hiding places.

The average home range is between 0.6 and 1.3km2. Using this as a guide and going from my house gives a fair few areas that could possibly shelter our fox during the day. I doubt though I am ever going to find out quite were he is coming from.

Have had a read up about eating habits and have found that while dog food is okay they would rather eat raw meat. I guess this is common sense, they are hardly likely to come across pedigree chum in the middle countryside (and even if they did what are the chances of there also being a fox operated can opener?). What is a little more surprising is that fresh fruit and berries makes up a large portion of the foxes diet. I always put foxes down as being carnivores but they are apparently omnivorous. I suppose when your hungry you will eat anything.

Eggs are a favorite apparently so we are going to try them tonight. Also hoping that with there being food on offer again last night that we will get two foxes.

First Course Goes Down A Treat...

Trying to find exactly where the best place is in order to get a decent video of the garden visitors is proving difficult.

Tonight I set up the Camera downstairs, with it pointed directly at the food bowl (which I have put out tonight after missing last night out). I checked at 11:28pm and missed a shot by seconds, as the fox was having a sniff, followed by what looked like marking the area around the food. I've checked and this doesn't appear to be fox behavior (marking food to return to later) so it is possible he was simply caught short maybe. he then jumped the wall and disappeared and so I assumed I had missed my shot for the night.

I gave it another 1/2 hour and then decided to go to bed. Of course I didn't go to sleep, something was telling me the Fox was going to return and sure enough I look out the window at 12.28am and there he was checking out the food bowl. He was quite shy about it at first (possibly because I had washed the bowl in a strong smelling washing up liquid, doh!), but he quickly tucked in.

When he had finished the bowl off he had a bit of a sniff around before making his normal way off through the neighbors gardens (and back to I assume his den). This is easily the longest I have seen him in one sitting, it seems the food bowl is paying off in terms of getting a good shot of him. Not sure were the second fox is tonight. I am thinking maybe she was scared off yesterday but hopefully she will make a return, if she knows there is food for the taking.

Tomorrow night I am going to try connecting to the TV so I can keep a constant eye on the garden shot, may even try a shot through the night if I can record directly to the video player rather than onto the DVD. It will mean searching through 8 hours of video for 1 shot but hopefully the results will be that much better.