Treatment for scruff the fox turned up a couple of days ago. I've moved the time for putting the sandwich out from mid afternoon to last light in the evening. He usually wanders through our garden mid afternoon and stops for a sleep if the weather's good, but as it hasn't been the most pleasant weather he's been a bit irregular and the bread was being pecked by the local magpies.
I do wonder if someone else has been treating him - he's not biting and scratching himself anywhere near as vigorously as he was a week ago, and I don't think I've been treating him long enough to take effect. no problem if he is getting two treatments - the stuff is homeopathic and isn't injurious to other animals or at higher doses to the fox. I need to keep the camera handy and start taking a series of pictures to detect and record the regrowth of his tail fur.
I haven't mowed the lawn for months now, it's looking more like a small field out there. Original reason was the lack of rain - the grass stays green better if it's a bit longer. As it grew the tracks of visiting wildlife became more visible. It was actually possible to see where the hedgehog had pushed through the grass in search of slugs. Their scat is distinctive, so I knew we had a visiting hog, but it was nice to track his wanderings round our garden.
Had an unrecognised small brown bird in our garden too. It came up close to the patio doors. it must be the young of one of the common garden birds, possibly a blackbird - must look it up.
We had been visited by rats coming in from behind next door's shed. Not a huge number, but they were occasional visitors to examine our compost heaps. 3 months ago they were fairly frequent visitors, but since then I've seen less traces to the point where none have been seen for some weeks. The foxes eat the rats, I'm wondering if the mange outbreak is in any way connected with the rats' disappearance.
Scruff the fox is the only local fox we've got a the moment. I'm assuming White tip (scruff's vixen), Pongo (White tips cub last year), Joe and Jane (recent incoming foxes with few markings) have all died in this mange outbreak. None of them have been seen now for a couple of months, their regular runs are fading and their laying up spots are unused. It is looking hopeful for scruff now though. From what I've read the surviving foxes will quickly breed to fill up the spare territories created by these departures.
Country watch on the TV has been featuring foxes at Pitsea Tip, which is only a few miles away from where I am. Lovely shots of this years cubs, but they are rather too used to humans feeding them - they're a bit too tame for my liking. I'll have to see if there's public access so I can take my camera down there.
The charity (query that, no registered charity number) that supplied the mange treatment (for free!), National Fox Welfare Society, has got loads of information on their site. They're also after members and volunteers to assist injured or ill foxes in your local area. I'd love to look after and raise orphaned cubs, but I've got mixed feelings about maybe making them too tame and about reintroducing what are after all vermin, back into the wild.
Only a couple of weeks now and I'll be off to Kent for another weekend in private woodland. Didn't see the foxes down there last time, I'll have to make a special effort to look for them.
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