Summer evening in the North Downs: the light is golden and the moon is high...



...and crows keep watch over the softly darkening land



I played hide and seek with a fox tonight. High up on the ridges near a farmhouse, a small, very lightly-boned fox was racing past an assorted jumble of cross country horse jumping obstacles and directly towards the lane where I was standing, setting off barks from the fenced farm dogs en route. Anticipating the fox's path, I moved forward, hoping to catch her after she had crossed the lane and entered the much more open field on the far side. But nothing doing; I searched, but she seemed to have melted away into the evening sky

Then I looked behind me. And there she was, having run into the lane on paws as soft as those of a cat. I never heard a sound.





Further along, I came to the large sloping field mown by the tractor last weekend, where now the newly-built haystacks throw long shadows. After seeing the gulls and kestrel taking advantage of the tractor on Sunday, I was hoping that dusk would lure other scavengers out of the wood. And, indeed, it had



He moved swiftly across the field, showing little surprise at its transformation from meadow to stubble.



I was not surprised that he was there. The mowing had created an opportunity in the form of exposed rodents, and foxes are opportunists, always.

But they're not the only ones to exploit their local situation

I made to continue down the track. But I was brought up short in shock. Something huge was right in front of me: a young pony on the lam!



I was momentarily at a loss to know what to do. Trying to coax it back into its paddock seemed a hopeless task on a straight and very narrow track; I was afraid that if I startled it further, it might race off into the forest for the night

Fortunately, after shuffling up and down the trail a few times, it thought better of its adventure, and squeezed itself back through the barbed wire of its own accord.



As I passed the spot, I looked into the field to see the errant youngster nonchalantly flicking its tail, as if nothing had ever happened



Jaywalking horses, soft-footed foxes...just some of the small scenes that you see if spend long enough wandering around the countryside