A fox gets blown away

Foxes hate windy weather.  They can't hear because of the noise and can't smell because the wind swirls around so they are deprived of their two main senses and feel vulnerable.  Add in horizontal sleet so they can't see properly and life becomes very difficult.  Last night we had a red warning for the winds in Storm Arwen of over 60mph (100kph) which were accompanied by driving sleet.

This fox turned up early because it was hungry but it gave up and ran off after a few minutes.  You can see in the videos how its ears are flattened and it is constantly trying to look for danger.  There was no external microphone, for obvious reasons, so the sound is as recorded inside the double-glazed door.  This was a few hours before the storm reached its peak and I didn't see another fox all evening.  Tonight will be colder but much less windy.

Fox News

The foxes are now looking wonderful in their new winter coats.  They are generally here only one or two at a time so it hasn't been easy to check on who is still in the family group, added to which this year's cubs are now full grown.  I was away for a short while so they didn't get fed for a few nights recently.  Getting home late in the evening I put out some food and this was the scene about 20 minutes later, filmed on the iPhone.  The dog fox is at the back with two of this year's cubs.

Next time I looked the dog and one cub had gone and a smaller cub and another with a dark (perhaps dirty) face had arrived, so that was five foxes within the first hour.

Not included were the alpha female, who is a regular, and the two yearling vixens.  I haven't seen them for a few weeks so they may have moved on.  Also not included were another smaller cub (there are at least two) and one with a very distinctive scar on the haunches, both of whom are also recent regulars.  I think the family group is at least 7 and maybe up to 10 strong at present but it will get smaller as some of the younger foxes disperse.  I presume the alpha pair are planning to hold the territory next season, which would be the vixen's third and the dog's second.

Although the 2021 cubs look fairly alike (except that they come in two sizes), I can generally recognise individual foxes. As an example this is the alpha male

and one of his offspring from this year.  Although they are alike the dark facial markings and the colouring on the foreleg are quite different.

This is the alpha female who I recognise at a glance from her muzzle shape, body shape and ear position.

And this is one of the larger full grown 2021 cubs.

Here are a few more family portraits, first the alpha female and male and then some of the youngsters.

While the cat's away, the mice will play

Or in this case, while the sparrowhawk is away all the small birds will make the most of it.  The trail camera is set up to watch the new sparrowhawk perch in the kitchen garden but it records a lot of other birds while he is away.  Even when the coast is clear they are still very much on edge.  Here is a taste.

There is a surprising amount of activity after dark, including this rather indecisive wood mouse.

A grand day out

It seems ages since I last went for a wander up the coast, something I used to do very regularly at this time of year before the pandemic.  I started at Boulmer and walked north from the village along the beach as the tide was coming in.  The weather was sunny and calm with a flat calm sea.  It is a great place to see waders and here are some of those I came across.

First bar-tailed godwits.  These have been in the news in the past week after one was tracked flying 8108 miles non-stop from Alaska to Australia in 239 hours (almost 10 days) at an average speed of 34mph.  The bird was heading for New Zealand but had to divert over 1000 miles to Australia after encountering headwinds, which makes me wonder how it knew Australia was there.  The godwits I saw are winter visitors from Siberia.

I saw and heard lots of redshanks who know just how deep they can go without getting their feathers wet.

These two spent several minutes fighting but it was difficult to see what it was all about as there was plenty of space for both of them.

Other waders were ringed plovers,

knots,

sanderlings,

dunlins (not a great photo but in for completeness),

turnstones,

and purple sandpipers.

The curlews stayed on the shore as long as possible but were eventually driven into nearby fields by the rising tide.

This is an oystercatcher with a knot and a godwit.

Ducks on the sea were eiders,

wigeons,

and mallards.

One very surprising sighting (to me at least) was little grebe fishing in the sea.  Other birds on the shore or close by included grey herons, carrion crows, rock pipits, pied wagtails, wrens, robins, linnets and house sparrows, some of which I may go back to photograph another time.  Oh, and plenty of seagulls!

Interlopers in the moth trap

Not everything that arrives in the moth trap is a moth.  These are a few of the other insects I have found over the last few months.

My favourites were the ichneumons which I saw on several occasions.  These are solitary wasps which are parasitoids of other insect larvae, often moth larvae.  There are 2500 UK species and they are notoriously difficult to identify.  The Natural History Museum's Beginner's guide to identifying British ichneumonids helpfully shows the ten commonest nocturnal orange-bodied species but I am not sure which these are.  They are all from different nights.

Wasps were common in late summer and were of more than one species - at least both common wasp (Vespula vulgaris) and German wasp (Vespula germanica).  They were generally very lethargic in the early morning and I was stung only once, when I picked up an egg box without knowing there was a wasp on the other side..

Crane flies were also fairly common visitors but often escaped before being photographed.

The only butterfly was a peacock.

The only bee was a honey bee.  I can't locate the photo but you know what a honey bee looks like.

There was one shield bug.  I think it may be a birch shield bug, Elasmostethus interstinctus.

Other insects known to visit moth traps include caddis flies, lacewings, hornets, beetles and dragonflies but I didn't see any of these.  The most surprising moth-trapping by-catch I have heard of was a puffin!