John's Mammals 2024 (1 Viewer)

[Farnboro John]

Ironic that you respond in this fashion to a truthful statement and back it up with little more than ruffled feathers. Your disagreement is nothing more than your opinion and fighting to back it up.

The difference is that you are putting words in my mouth, which I consider my prerogative: I may be expressing an opinion but it is my own, whereas you are imagining what my opinion may be. Surely the difference is obvious?

However on the substantive matter of the discussion we now seem to be in broad agreement so perhaps a good time to let the rest go, if you are OK with that.

Cheers

John

 

[Farnboro John]

I had a walk at Moor Green the other day, fluffy invasive alien Grey Squirrels bouncing about in the trees and Roe Deer warily grazing not too far from cover. Speaking of invasive aliens the male Muntjac (I assume it's the same one, it was within twenty yards of the same spot) was in the open briefly and I got a better snap of it.

That evening at home Rusty and Toff clashed again, rather less violently than previously though they were wrestling on their hind legs and gekkering at one point. Curiously afterwards Rusty came closer than Toff to be fed and wasn't robbed afterwards by the latter. I really have no idea now how their balance of power sits. Maybe it simply doesn't relate to their individual confidence around me.

John

Muntjac buck
Rusty (r) vs Toff (l)
Rusty five minutes later
Toff ditto (he's not scraggy, just dirty from a day underground)

 

[Farnboro John]

Vixen action the other night, rather more peaceful than the boys! Hoppity the four-year-old came up the path and ate one drumstick right in front of us while her daughter of last year Midge grabbed hers and shot off with it. I served up a second one to Hops and one to Nell the winter newcomer who had done her customary high-speed seemingly random zig-zag across the lawns and concrete paths. By then Midge was trotting back towards the house and Hoppity saw her coming: she picked up her chicken and walked towards the first-year vixen, gratuitously placing the drumstick in front of Midge, who took it up and departed the scene.

So Hoppity still feels the urge to feed her cub despite the passage of time. I was out of cooked chicken so nipped to the fridge and came back with some uncooked intended for later in the week. Hoppity gave a raw drumstick a look, a sniff and after giving me a disdainful "what the hell is this?" look lifted it up and trotted away with it.

John

 

[JWN Andrewes]

In work today. Pipistrelle I think, presumably Common, but I'm wary of over reaching in my bat ID skills!

 

[Farnboro John]

I'm likewise wary of going further than I should but the pinkish tones to the face coupled with the lack of a hump between the nostrils suggest to me that we are looking at a Soprano Pip rather than a Common.

Great photos!

John

 

[JWN Andrewes]

Cheers John. It seemed a bit dopey still, presumably a poor life choice wandering out of hibernation on a sunny day into a crowd of people. It was successfully gathered up and taken up a ladder and offered up to a bat box, into which it crawled.

 

[Richard Prior]

Woke up at silly o'clock for no apparent reason this morning, so before dawn I started scanning Sulens mountain across the valley from us in the hope of seeing the Black Grouse that should start displaying soon. Around 06h00 I realised that one of the two 'rocks' near the highest point (c1800m asl) had moved, so much for my wildlife observational skills...... In the half light I couldn't make out colour but the beasts seemed grey/brown rather than brown/rufous so I wonder whether it's Grey Wolf rather than Red Fox. This is c3kms from the house so the camera was at its limit I'm afraid but attach the first five half decent efforts. What do you think John (and any others perhaps interested)?
Merci in advance.

 

[Farnboro John]

Odd isn't it. The colours seem to say Wolf rather than Fox - even in poor light I'd have expected to see the contrast between a Red Fox's rufous back, crown, top of muzzle and its white lower muzzle and dress shirt - but it seem to me the last photo shows definitive short legs, far too short for a Wolf, and maybe the tail is a little long as well. So I'm erring towards Red Fox. But maybe the Wolf's paws are sinking a little into the snow.....

Dunno. Great mystery photos.

John

PS: In case it helps, here's a picture from Yellowstone of an adolescent Wolf at 1.8 miles with a Canon 500mm f4 + 1.4X extender (heavily cropped as well). You can see what I mean about legs and tail.

Cheers

JD

 

[Richard Prior]

I’ll post some more photos of them as they ran off later John, in one or two the tail looks too long for Wolf I agree, particularly when they were running down the slope. It was fun watching one of them playing toboggan and sliding on the snow!

 

[Richard Prior]

There you go... pretty long tail visible on some of these. Thanks for the id.tips too!

 

[Farnboro John]

There you go... pretty long tail visible on some of these. Thanks for the id.tips too!

Good effort! Those are foxes for sure.

Cheers

John

 

[Allen]

Apologies for the bad zoomed phone photo but female back in the garden this week but at mid afternoon slot. Noticed swollen teats so assume cubs in den somewhere nearby

 

[Richard Prior]

The two foxes ( they look like last year’s youngsters I think) were trotting across the snow again this morning when a sort of Mexican stand off developed. The male Black Grouse was out of the forest parading around on the slopes and the foxes approached to about 30m of it, it continued to strut and make itself look bigger than it really is and the foxes made a detour below it and went down into the woods! I was just out of the shower so not equipped to capture the incident on camera

 

[Farnboro John]

Apologies for the bad zoomed phone photo but female back in the garden this week but at mid afternoon slot. Noticed swollen teats so assume cubs in den somewhere nearby

Yep, I reckon you're an uncle....

John

 

[Frank van Drogen]

Woke up at silly o'clock

First time I heard that expression. I am sure I will have plenty of opportunity to use it.


(And, if not, my oldest son will make sure )

 

[Farnboro John]

I've just had a fun session with the foxes on my return from a lecture followed by several beers in London.

I fed Toff at once, he'd been goal-hanging: a few tongue clicks and Hoppity arrived as did Midge. I fed both and Midge made the mistake, after a delightful composed leap over the short hedge at the far side of the main drag, of trying to run for it across the green: Toff ran her down and robbed her, provoking her usual very vocal protest: a lot of quite high-pitched yapping.

While this was going on Hops came back for a second helping and for the first time since the mating season recognised the phrase "do you want another one?" after she picked up the first and didn't move. I threw her a second drumstick and she spent a few seconds shuffling them into a convenient position to pick up both before departing quietly in the opposite direction from the others.

Toff had departed with his booty but Midge returned and was joined by Rusty. As he is bigger than her (everyone is bigger than Midge!) I fed him first resulting in a yap of disgust directed at me by Midge (I have no doubt of this at all) - all I was trying to do was prevent Midge being robbed again and once she was fed she departed almost via the step, much closer than she normally comes. So I think she may have understood the strategy eventually. Perhaps.

John

 

[Farnboro John]

Last night Maz and I witnessed for the first time a bit of fox behaviour that is documented all over the place but perhaps not so often seen.

Our familiar friend Hoppity the four-year-old vixen came for her usual dinner of chicken drumsticks and ate the first one on the front path. When she looked up for another I threw it to her in the usual way but instead of either feeding or making off into the distance, she picked it up and walked onto the lawn, cut earlier in the day for the first time this year by the council. She nosed a hole in the thick grass cuttings left where they had fallen and dropped the chicken in before covering it over with cut grass using a combination of muzzle and paw. She repeated this twice in other areas of the grass out front before finally trotting off with an extra drumstick.

I kept supplying them partly because I couldn't believe she would keep doing it, partly because with the amount of fox traffic outside our house I couldn't believe she'd much chance of collecting the booty later!

Anyway, there you go: fox caching food - tick.

John

 

[Allen]

I didn't realise this was not often seen John as my fox visitor regularly does it in the garden beds despite my protestations as i sit there watching her! Usually with the dog meat strips that a give her. In fact only the other day I was digging a hole for a new plant and found a bread roll buried!!!!

 

[Farnboro John]

I didn't realise this was not often seen John as my fox visitor regularly does it in the garden beds despite my protestations as i sit there watching her! Usually with the dog meat strips that a give her. In fact only the other day I was digging a hole for a new plant and found a bread roll buried!!!!

The thing is I've always known the foxes cache food because they would arrive back for the next lot far too quickly to have eaten the last lot! However, our heavily grassed front isn't normally conducive to the behaviour: it was only the grass cut that gave them a substrate in which to bury the food.

Cheers

John

 

[Farnboro John]

I still haven't been out and seen much around the local area (with the exception of a couple of sightings of Muntjac while I was cycling to and from the social club on a Friday afternoon/evening) but an update on the foxes will include some interesting behaviour.

Rusty is still resisting Toff's efforts to drive him away: they were wrestling on hind legs with a lot of gekkering on the night of 2nd May and Toff chases Rusty whenever he is given food even when Toff is heavily involved with his own drumstick. One night they had a massive fight behind the shrubbery opposite our front door with lots of screaming and barking and after that I didn't see Rusty for nearly a week but he has gradually sidled back into the community.

Rusty in turn frequently robs Midge and I always know when one of the boys has done so because the indignant yammering starts at once and continues as she returns to be given replacement chicken. Sometimes the indignation is such that even after she has plonked her backside down to sit and wait to be fed she continues yapping and only gradually peters out. It's hard not to laugh.

On the evening of the 24th Toff turned up first - he often does, he seems to be more confident earlier in dusk than the others - and was eating his second drumstick two doors left of us when Hoppity trotted up and straight to the foot of our step. I'm sure she feels safer close to us as the dog foxes won't come as close as she does. Anyway, I threw her a drumstick and she ate it, then looked up and made eye contact to indicate another would be in order. By this time Midge had taken up her favourite waiting position on the far side of the main path through the houses, between the end of the shrubbery and a metal telecoms cabinet. Hops saw her on one of her wary threat-check scans, picked up her new drumstick and trotted back down our path and over to Midge, dropping the chicken right under her nose. Midge (who is Hoppity's daughter from last year's litter) looked at her mum then took it and departed behind the shrubbery to eat while Hops turned round and came straight back to me for her next course.

I was surprised: yes Hoppity was a good mother but Midge is now a yearling and if anything one would expect that she would be her mother's helper with a new litter? On the other hand Hoppity is now four (oldish, realistically) and while I suspected pregnancy in both during the winter I don't think either vixen has a litter this year so maybe Hops had cubs but lost them and has nobody else to mother? Answers on a postcard please.

John