One of the things that is so striking about foxes is that they usually seem to know precisely where they are going and why. They possess a busy and purposeful air even when they are doing something as ridiculous as, say, walking off with a broken stick. But some of my other wild neighbours occasionally seem a little...lost



Early this morning, I rounded a corner on my usual trail to find a roe deer doe springing away from me parallel to the barbed wire fence that borders a local paddock. I'm no stranger to seeing mule deer or whitetails up close when I'm wandering around Canada, but these little roe deer are far more secretive and wary. The fawns that I photographed the other day were a good 500 feet away from me, so encountering an adult so close was something of a shock!



And she didn't know how to find her way out of the paddock. Not wanting to frighten her further, I stayed still by the fence, watching she made her way back and forth, looking for a gap in the barbed wire and finding none. Eventually she reached the far side of the paddock where the fence is much lower and disappeared into a hedgerow. I really don't like barbed wire - it can be dangerous for wildlife.
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The temperature this morning was fully 15 degrees lower than the day's forecasted high and any earlier hints of a thaw have faded. I like the cold, or pseudo-cold anyway; after all, for all the media's excitement, this isn't exactly Snag. But I like hiking in -9c and seeing all the Downs and the Weald draped with unrelenting hoar frost.



Even if the deer are getting lost, I know where I am going: outside! It's beautiful out there



Birds are very active, trying to gather another food to fuel themselves. The garden is attracting large numbers of yellowhammers, stock doves and blackbirds (up to eight at once!) Out by the local farm, large flocks of noisy goldfinches are feeding in the trees...



...in whatever way they see best!



As I was watching them, a rattling call alerted me to a mistle thrush.



And there's never a robin far away at this time of year.



But the biggest surprise of the morning was left to last - another animal looking rather lost, and one that I would never have imagined seeing when I headed out this morning. Or any morning, come to that. It's one of our shyest and most reclusive waders, albeit a wader that is found in woodland and is mostly nocturnal.



A woodcock!! I would never have seen it at all, but a flapping in the hedgerow suggested that something was trapped by the fence on the far side of the bushes. Its intent was probably to fly out of sight and vanish into another bush, but finding its path blocked, it flattened itself low, spreading its wings with their wonderfully cryptic markings.

I wasn't sure that it wasn't actually caught in the fence, but I backed off a little way and was pleased to see it get back to its feet and trot quickly down the hedgerow. A very cute little bird, and that's my first confirmed sighting of one in the North Downs. A new species for my local list!

...I don't think that I'd ask for much more than a quiet morning like this in the open meadows, when the frost is sprinkled with fresh snow, and sun makes the whole whitened world sparkle. Snow (even in minor quantities) has exactly the same effect on foxes that it has on young dogs and I was impatient to be out with my camera this morning.



Following wildlife is always a riddle Fortunately I knew that we had had two snowfalls since last night - the first fell before 8am, and the second at around 9:30am. I established that 1) a fox had headed into the field after the first snow had settled, and 2) a fox exited down the same track after the second snowfall, perhaps shortly before I arrived. But I don't think that it was the same fox!

The fresh fox tracks



For when I slipped past the stile, a large fox shot out of the bushes about 100 yards to my left like a streak of ginger flame, careering headfirst into a thicket, turning like a lioness pursing a weaving gazelle, and doubling back on itself without a sound. Startled, I waited at a distance, presuming that the fox in question was in the middle of a hunt.

Not so! It soon reappeared looking distinctly excited. It galloped toward the thicket again, tossing a large object - a bone? a stolen shoe? I couldn't quite tell - and then staring further into the thicket, ears pricked tall. Another fox, just visible to me, if not really to my camera, was in the field!



And another, who did put himself decidedly in view!


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In another meadow, far from the road, two more foxes were also in playful mood.



I've been looking at 100% crops of these two foxes and I'm moderately sure that this is the same pair whom I photographed in another field yesterday ("foxes 5 & 6" in my previous post). At least, I'm as certain as I can be about the vixen - she has rather unusual markings - but I'll have to get a better view of the male next time I see them. Teasing apart the mystery of the social organisation of the whole loose group will take some doing, but if these two are the main breeding pair, then I have made some unexpected progress already. I've tagged them BL1-M and BL2-F for "easy" recording, but for all other intents and purposes they are the Ginger Dogfox, here on the right...



...and the Striped Vixen. (I'm not expecting to win any awards for name originality here )



But I wasn't their only observer



I was fascinated by this young male fox. My eyesight is far better than that of any fox - not only in terms of colour, but also of perception of detail - but he was clearly able to see the pair at a distance of at least 500 feet. Just the movement, maybe?

He was also listening for rodents in the grass, but I didn't see him pounce.



A sprinkling of snow and a little bit of sunshine makes for a good winter walk

On Saturday, a skylark was singing, crocuses were in bloom, magpies were gathering in their pre-breeding season flocks...

Now all is submerged in the heaviest snow of our winter so far. Our climate is tipping back and forth like a see-saw and I am not surprised that our wildlife is confused.

The UK transport network has, predictably, shut down again. But this time I preempted the chaos and booked today as annual leave which, not incidentally, also gives me plenty of time to capture our winter, brief as it might well be.

Click the picture for my updated WPN album



I saw the Survivor Vixen dashing madly through the snow this morning but, as is her wont, she went too quickly for me to grab any photo. However, I should be able to take snowy foxes in the garden this afternoon, if the Old Dogfox comes at his usual time and in the meantime, there is plenty of good tracking out there.

Two foxes crossing their path or one fox going in a figure of eight?



Very few rabbit tracks are to be seen. We were hit heavily by myxomatosis this summer and their numbers are still way down on previous years.



Of course, the dogs are having a lovely time.



Here's a pic of Kelly and Leila together, to show the size difference. Kelly (right) is about the size of an Alsation / German shepherd. Leila (left), when standing on her hind legs, is taller than me.