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I have written previously about the grass
snakes here especially in 2003 from which
our frog population is still recovering. This
year one of some twelve to fifteen inches
was seen in the pond seemingly hooked up
at an odd angle on the side. Later it was in
the blanket weed which persists in growing
on and falling off the end of the otherwise
pretty waterfall. I carefully extracted the
snake from the weed and the reason for its
odd behaviour became clear. The first one
third of the snake was fine but the remainder
was paralysed with a wound at that point.
Martin explained that it would have been
attacked most probably by a magpie or
crow. There was no choice but for it to be
destroyed.
It was never likely that we would have a
repeat of last year’s fox bonanza but 2010
was none the less interesting and quite
challenging with many unanswered
questions. At the start of February last
year’s vixen appeared to be ousted by, we
believe, one of her 2009 daughters who
teamed up with the new dog fox – another
massive one with an almost bear like
appearance from the front, he was so
thickset. We had also been aware of a
desperately mangy male around, seen off on
a regular basis by the new one. I fear he
may have been last years’ lovely dog fox but
if so how he got in such a state I do not
know. He was found dead in a neighbours’
garden mid March.
We had more success treating mange on the
rump patches of our vixen and on the tail of
her sister who was also a member of the
family unit until mid June. I had had my
doubts about the efficacy of the
homoeopathic medicine, but from our
observations it clearly worked.
As we waited for cubs to appear we
witnessed extraordinary behaviour from the
vixen who became near tame; we could
probably have fed her by hand but did not
want to go this far. She took away massive
amounts of food. She was clearly lactating
and would turn up at all times of the day
hoping for food. Our cats were highly
unimpressed and our ginger 6 year old,
Merlin, would consistently attack the fox
which always withdrew. Still no cubs
though. That was until the bizarre events of
the night of 26/27 May. Having closed the
garage door at dusk we were awoken at
3.15am by fox barking from the garage.
This proved to be what we now know as a
well grown cub (1) who was shut in. As it
cowered under a workbench we noticed that
it was very sandy in colour and had an
extended white tail tag. Eventually it shot
out of the garage and we shut up with some
relief.
A few days later I was working in the garage
mid-afternoon when there was a massive
commotion outside. I found the vixen
literally screaming in Merlin’s face. Merlin
gave not an inch and started lashing out with
his claws. I then saw the reason why the
vixen had not retreated straight away – a
well-grown cub (1 above) was about ten
yards away. We have never had good views
of well grown cub (2) – similar size to its
sibling but with a thin tail and no coloured
tag. Both have been seen to feed fleetingly
and were very wary. It is clear from the
size of these cubs that they must have been
born much earlier than the 2009 young.
About mid June the vixen disappeared. This
was concerning coming soon after the
‘London fox incident’.
We saw little for a couple of weeks save that
the dog fox, which had always been wary,
was much more in evidence for a while and
keen to take food. Now we believe the
vixen is back. We have seen her on her own
and with the cubs, quick fleeting glimpses
but she has the distinctive curved up tail
with indented tip and pale flank patches
where the new fur grew after the mange was
cured. We are fairly pleased she has
reverted to “wild” mode but what caused it?
Did she at last realise the well grown cubs
were now capable of fending for themselves
or did someone give her a serious scare, or
both?
Let us see what next year brings.
Adrian Butterworth |