It doesn't fall to me very often these days to get a photograph of a fox in the garden. I often go for days without seeing either the Chipped Vixen or the Sandy Dogfox. But last night, I happened to switch on the outside light and see the Sandy Dogfox curled up tightly upon the mound, facing the house. I switched off the light in the hope that he would remain there, set up the tripod, switched the light back on, found that he had sat up, and got a shot of sorts. It was never going to be spectacular without my remote shutter but, it is, nonetheless, a photo of my nearest vulpine neighbour.



The Chipped Vixen is probably with her cubs.
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Meanwhile, the front garden is playing host to sunbathing woodpigeons, albeit by day.



And I did see one fox on a short walk this afternoon. I was intrigued by the place that it had chosen to rest; shielded by conifers, a small fence and a log. Next to impossible to photograph, but still interesting!

A surprise in the garden - and not to do with the foxes for once

I glanced outside yesterday and saw what I initially presumed to be an unusually large flock of woodpigeons devouring the finch food. Apart from considering how expensive they might be to feed, I didn't think much of it, until later in the day I got the camera on one of the "pigeons" and was very startled to see a stock dove Columba oenas staring back at me!

One came again this morning, and I was able to snatch a very poor picture!



Well, this is a nice surprise New bird for the garden list and, indeed, for my personal area list. I've never seen this shy rural bird at all outside of the vast agricultural plains of East Anglia. It looks slightly more elegant than its bulky woodpigeon cousin, and is much smaller, but its markings are the best ID. Woodpigeons Columba palumbus...



...have white blotches on their wings, a white blaze on their necks (when adult) and yellowish eyes. Stock doves have black eyes, black wingtips, and no white anywhere. The feral pigeons which overwhelm city centers are descended from the domesticated form of the rock dove Columba livia which is now extremely localised as a wild bird in the UK. There's a handful of feral pigeons in the nearest town but I never have them visit the garden.

Collared doves are the only other member of the family to pay us a visit (I do look out for turtle doves but I'm yet to find one), and easily distinguished!



One thing all these birds have in common is a "cere", a fleshy area around the base of their beaks, which isn't that common amongst birds in general. Some raptors also have it.
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Woodpigeons might the largest bird to regularly land in the garden (very occasionally a pheasant shows up) but roe deer are largest wild mammal that I see on a regular basis; fallow deer are around, but they're not easy to find. Early this morning, when the grass was still frosty and woodpeckers were drumming in the treetops, I found two does and a fine-looking buck grazing near the horses.



If you look closely you can see that the buck's antlers are in velvet.



They're still in their greyish winter coats, but they will moult soon. Frost or no frost, winter is clearly ending - if indeed it ever properly started!



Finally, these horses They've appeared on my blog on a few occasions over the last couple of years but I've never known very much about them, other than that they're quite benign with the wild visitors to their meadow. Last week I had a chat with the ladies who care for them and had another surprise - the one with the white blaze on his muzzle is 33 years old! The brown one is about 30. They're doing well!