Kitting out for Winter

Although frost has yet to bite and frogs are still hopping about (even if the daddy-long-legs plague has finally subsided!) the foxes are well advanced in growing their winter coats. They are a fine sight now; it's a shame, in some respects, that we haven't got any snow to frame them against.

I took this picture of the Fringe Vixen this evening. Apart from a wound of unknown origin on her back, she is looking absolutely splendid.



See how thick her brush is! Presumably, if climate change does involve Britain developing painfully cold winters (by upsetting the gulf stream, as some have suggested) foxes will be one of the species least affected. They are supremely adaptable. As for the butterflies, migratory birds and sensitive mammals like caribou - well, their outlook is not quite so attractive.

In other fox news, I had a fascinating little encounter on a nearby residential road earlier this week. A fox (quite possibly one of Takahe's cubs) sauntered out from a garden, closely followed by an animal of similar size. Naturally, I thought at first that it was another fox, but on closer inspection it was a rather rotund moggy. For a few seconds fox and cat stood in the road together, the cat eying up the fox but the latter not reacting at all. Then the cat retreated back to its garden, and the fox trotted after it.

I've seen many fox / cat interactions over the years, and supreme indifference seems the order of the day. Although cats can inflict fatal injuries on foxes, and to be honest I'm not a fan of letting them loose without proper supervision (for the sake of more vulnerable wildlife, and for the cat itself - cars, dogs, thugs with airguns, and feline HIV are all out there), a passive truce seems to exist between the feline and vulpine worlds. Sometimes they can even be seen foraging together!