Having endured the loss of two of my ducks to foxes on Monday night on the allotment back home in Sunniside, yesterday I had to endure a fox lazing itself in the sun in the garden of my house in London (see photo above). Urban foxes are the pampered city cousins of the rural ones we have back home. In London they can survive in unnaturally large numbers because people leave out food for them or people waste food (often in criminal quantities). Where wheelie bins are not provided and rubbish bags are put out for collection (as is the case in Crystal Palace where my London home is) foxes are free to rip them open and have a free meal.
Foxes here in London wander around in daylight in public areas. I saw one outside Crystal Palace Sainsburys earlier this week. Back home in Sunniside, they tend to avoid human contact and stay away from housing during daylight hours. What went wrong for us on Monday evening is that two of our ducks somehow didn't get back into the duck house before it was locked up by the friend looking after them in our absence. That was when they became vulnerable.
A number of people have contacted me when learning of our loss so rest assured, all the ducks and hens are safe at night time in their duck and hen houses. We have learnt a costly lesson not to let any difficult birds who don't want to go in for the night to stay out.
2 comments:
sorry to here of your lost lovely post al the same hope the rest stay save since the longer days mined tend to hide in the undergrowth so you think they gone into they house when they have not
Where I live in the USA, we've had stray dogs, foxes, hawks, racoons, and crows as predators. Foxes will take one or two at a time, but stray dogs will wipe out an entire flock in a matter of minutes just for the fun of it. I'm so sorry you lost some birds, but thankful the number was only 2.
I like your blog, by the way, and have been following it for many months now. Good job.
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