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The foxes are here for their dinner every night between 9.30 and 10.00.  The alpha pair are very regular visitors and some of last year's cubs are still in the family.  The vixen has shown less sign that she is feeding this year's cubs in recent days which I think must mean that they are mostly weaned.  Unlike her mate, she often sits down while she is feeding.  These two photos, taken three weeks apart, show that the lawn has started to grow after a cold dry spring.

The vixen is a very relaxed character and a very methodical eater.  She chews each peanut very carefully and eats about four peanuts a minute.  She usually stays for about 30 minutes and in that time eats about 120 peanuts, or 80g. The dog fox only stays for 10 minutes but he eats 12 peanuts a minute, and so consumes the same amount.  He gobbles his food like a cub and will only eat standing up, always twitchy and jumping around, seeming nervous.

One night recently he turned up with blood on his cheek but I couldn't see whether he had scratched himself or it was from something he had eaten.  It had gone by the following night.

Despite being the alpha male he seems very gentle with the others.  Here he is greeting his mate with one of the yearlings on the left.  Although the vixen is in a very submissive posture it is only out of politeness as that's how foxes do things.

Here is the dog (on the left) greeting one of his yearling daughters.

This is a yearling greeting her mother.

I think there are still two or three yearlings in the family group, presumably all female, but I don't see them every night. This one has long black socks, unlike either of her parents.

I had thought there was only one yearling looking like this but then two turned up together and I can't easily tell them apart.  The far one looks a bit smaller and may be one of the three small cubs from last year.

I hope to see new cubs in the garden next month.  They have to be old enough to get here from wherever the den is and big enough to get over the rabbit fence.  I'll post some photos here when they arrive.