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Any day now I am hoping to see the first cub of the year in my garden.  In the meantime I watch the adult foxes which are here every night.  I usually see at least three of the four, although mostly in ones and twos rather than all together. This is the dog, still looking very handsome.  His tail is just starting to thin so I expect he will be a bit scruffy in the next few weeks as he moults.

Both of last year's cubs are still very much in the family group.  This is the full-tailed cub, now a full grown vixen.

This is her sister with the half-tail.  She seems to be the lowest rank in the family, although I dont know if that its because of her tail.

And this is their mother, and the mother of this year's cubs (I hope).  She has a very different face and body shape from the other three and is instantly recognisable.  She almost always has her ears flat or to the side, even when there isn't another fox around.

Here is the vixen with her full-tailed daughter.

And with the half-tailed daughter.

And with this year's mate.

While I was watching the young full-tailed vixen a couple of nights ago the dog turned up and she wasn't keen to let him join in, even though there was plenty of food for both.  There was a lot of pushing and shoving with neither prepared to give way and the dog was rather unceremoniously hoisted onto her back.

After a couple of minutes it all calmed down and they seemed quite happy side by side.  You can see how much smaller and slimmer she is.

Sunset is now very late, 2150 this far north, and the foxes may be here before that so I have to put out the food well before dark.  The magpies know this and come to steal the peanuts but I can't shoo them off if the first fox is already here. The foxes don't take any notice.