 Yesterday i Finished work at around 1400, got home and went straight out with the dogs up to our local mountain. The dogs were ahead of me in the lane leading up to the mountain gate. Meg stuck her head over the fence and startled a large fox (so large it had to be male) which was walking down the field, and upon seeing the dogs ran down the field toward me. I immediately signalled the dogs into a down. The fox ran right over to a gap in the fence whilst I froze. He was looking up the lane in the direction of the dogs and sat down about 3 feet from me. There was then a "stand off" (or more accurately, a lie/sit off) between the fox and the dogs. I don't know how long this would have lasted, but I had my compact camera in my inside pocket and I couldn't resist the opportunity that I was now being presented with. As soon as I made the slightest hand movement, the fox turned toward me and I froze again, the fox was now looking directly at me and STILL, didn't appear t know I was there. The temptation however had become too much for Taff and he got up and started running toward us. The moment had gone, and quick as a flash, the fox disappeared into the nearest boundary hedge. Fascinating encounter though and lucky for the fox that I wasn't a local farmer with a gun!
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  How nice it must be, fox or otherwise, to actually have one's own 'local mountain' to take a quick walk upon of an evening.  Wish I had one, around here anyway.
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| Edited: 02/11/08 15:59 |
Yes, Trev, does make me sound like a Lister landgrabber clone or something doesn't it, what I should have said was "up the mountain local to us!" (1/4 of a mile and we reach the mountain gate! )
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| Edited: 02/11/08 16:02 |
Please don't think I was knocking you there, in suggesting there was anything wrong in you calling it your local mountain. I wasn't in fact. I just meant it would be lovely too if we had one near us here locally, is all really. It is all largely flat, give or take a few small hills, around this part of Sussex you see. 
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Yes sorry Trev, I knew what you mean't, it is just that when I re-read my post I saw the funny side of owning my own mountain!
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Having said that of course, I did say Our, so I own it jointly with the dogs of course!
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Reminds me of when I was an apprentice farm-worker and was working on a large farm in N.Ireland. I was tasked to hand harvest a 12 acre field of turnips as (a) it was winter and there wasnt much work on the farm (b) they could be used as cattle fodder and I was cheap labour and (c) "It'll be good experience for you" (never quite worked that one out) Anyway, one afternoon, coming dusk, I happened to be taking a pee break and noticed a fox come out of the woods. I stood rock still and waited as he/she/it trotted across the field towards me and past me (missing me by a few feet). I think it was a dog fox....judging by the smell! I let it go a few metres and then coughed. he literally jumped in the air, turned to face me and then scampered off! Couple of days later - about the same time, I was sitting having a brew and being quite when - and it sounded like it was right in my ear - a fox barked! I jumped...swung round...and there he was!  By then end of the month,I was keeping the ends of my sarnies to toss to him every afternoon.
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 Tony, as any farmer or gamekeeper will tell: you will never have your gun when the fox is right in front of you
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 what a wonderful experience tony.
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You are so right Parky, and normally, I would have taken my D40x with me and would probably have had it slung around my neck at that point. I decided not to take it in favour of the compact because of the forecast for heavy rain. I am sure that I would have been able to have got a couple of shots off before he went on his way. So Hamish, in a way, I know how those farmers/gamekeepers would have felt !
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lol. it's a bugger all right tony. sod's law or whatever at its worst. but it's moments like that that make it worthwhile getting up in the morning.
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 I was once taking photos of the rocks at the end of Houns Tout in Dorset, when a buzzard suddenly filled the viewfinder, hovering on the updraft. I pressed the shutter, only to have it lock as the batteries were flat. So I missed the shot...
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 Always good to have close wildlife encounters. I remember the badger that ran into my leg, knocking me aside on the coast path at St Davids, the Grizzly in BC that took a liking to my Scapas, the Orca in Queen Charlotte Sound that swam under my boat and the Humpback with halitosis in the Gastineau Channel that surfaced and blew only 5 metres away, soaking me. Tony, there was an interesting programme on TV last week about the hunting ban, 4 years on. Nothing much seems to have changed.
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| Edited: 03/11/08 13:32 |
 Beautiful animals Foxes! One of my favourite!
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 A few years ago I was staying overnight at Black Sail YHA. It was in May. Unusually, I was the only guest that night, and I was alone at the hostel for the evening as the warden had gone down to Ennerdale Bridge for a pint with his mate from Gillerthwaite Hostel (I don't think he was supposed to do that, but I didn't mind). After I'd eaten my tinned Irish stew and pasta (very tasty) I settled down on the bench outside to enjoy the dusk. It was a still and somewhat midgy evening, as I recall. After a while, I heard a noise, and turned to see a big fox walking slowly towards the hostel. I kept quite still and it came really close, near the door, and just curled up on the grass. I guess it was hoping for some after-dinner scraps, but it was out of luck that evening. But it was a memorable encounter.
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