I have the greatest luck to live in a house that has a fabulous, secluded garden for my pleasure and entertainment.
The entertainment is provided by the creatures that call the garden; home! We have pretty birds, pesky squirrels and a shy fox (or 2).
The birds family is made up of blue tits, coal tits, robins, sparrows, chaffinches, nuthatches, the very occassional wren, lots of very annoying pigeons, a woodpecker that’s eating us put of house and home and a magpie.
There are squirrels galore, one of whom is named Sue! 🙂
and we have a fox. Now the fox population changes and I have seen a dog fox which is rather large, 2 cubs (last year) a mangy bedraggled fox last autumn and a very pretty, petite dusty red fox this spring 🙂
This lovely creature has taken to strolling through the garden in the early mornings, and I have a sneaky suspicion s/he is using the air-raid bunker as a den. Not sure about that except for the fact that every time I see it, it’s walking up the stairs leading from the bunker.
So where does the self-installed alarm come into this tale? Well over the weeks I have noticed, kinda subconciously that every now and then the magpie makes a hell of a din in the garden, shrieking and squawking like mad! Initially I thought it was just the magpie doing what magpies do!
Then a few days ago I happened to look out the window and there in the rose garden was this beautiful little fox and right behind it, jumping up and down and flapping it’s wings, darting at the fox and jumping back and making the most awful din you could imagine was the magpie!
and suddenly it dawned on me….the magpie was trying to chase of the fox. And it succeeded!
so now when I hear the din outside, I know that we have a fox in the garden! 🙂
I am also way impressed at the magpie….it seemed to have no fear of the fox and was quite willing to give it a good blasting and eventually chasing it down to the end of the garden and then silence.
So I decided that a magpie that is prepared to take on a fox without fear of becoming breakfast, deserves a name!
so we now have a squirrel named Sue and a magpie named…..Chubb!
27.05.11 update!!! update!! 🙂 brilliant luck today….saw the vixen AND her cub in the garden today. managed to get some great photos albeit far away, these are the best
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