It had been quite a normal gardening day and John had still seen him when he came in for lunch. I was on the computer a bit longer than normal after lunch with correspondence about what to do about foxes, John had to go and collect grandchildren from school, and when I went out into the garden again about half past 3 I could only see four of our separated drakes, a big search revealed no sign of our big Jedda who'd hatched out of one of Hedda's eggs. Later in the early evening when John was mowing he spotted a few white feathers in our "formal" garden. Now, our previous fox victims had all vanished without a trace or feather apart from Hedda who hadn't been carried away. If these feathers were Jedda's then the vixen was right in our garden and he must have fought back; it was where I've set a small white cross inside the square formal garden bit near the yellow dots marking where the fence goes around Captain's domain.
The black cross inside the yellow dot fence is where the vixen tried to pull Hedda away, and right across the field from there, the large orange dot, is where I saw the vixen at 10 past 8 on Thursday night.
Not far from that dot in the field, the white cross is roughly where another vixen which I was pursuing dropped the already headless Valentino, one of our first two drakes. That was in 2005.
I really thought the 5 boys would be fast enough to get away from any vixen, she must have been lying in wait. One of the last photos I have of our big white one is below left, taken on Monday 21st. I still think of him as the biggest of the little ones traipsing through the clover [when I thought he was a she].
Looking at this photo the white of Jedda rather stands out - Hedda was big and white and Lane was very pale, it makes we wonder if foxes eyesight can pick out bright colours more easily. That makes nonsense, however, of Anabelle's being taken last May, she was very dark.
The brown duck behind Jedda in the baby picture top right is this little beauty now below, our Beyoncé or Praline. She's been shut away from the drakes except for limping Joseph for over two weeks now but is still looking a bit bare at the back of her head.
On the left is the pale Lane, the first fox victim this year on 3rd May [I've marked an orange cross on the google map picture above, far out in our big field where she and Anke had been aerating the grass and I think she was taken.]
Hedda here below [from the days when she was supporting the election of Barack Obama!] was killed on 7th May. On the right is a photo from last year when Anabelle, behind her, was still there. They'll always be in our hearts!
I had a lovely surprise gift from Michael and Pine enclosed with John's birthday parcel, this little bag with a gorgeous picture of Hedda on it:
On Thursday we thought we'd try and find the place again where - 6 years ago! - we bought several ducks from a rescue centre, in the hope that if we had extra girls it would stop the now four excluded boys from continually running into Captain's enclosure after Candida and Anke - I need not have bothered to peg down the fence, by the way, and cover holes to keep them out, the boys are skinny enough to slip right through the bigger, upper mesh apertures of the new fence I'd bought, I've seen them do it time and again....
We found the place again alright but there was no-one at home, and peering over the gate into the meadow there was no duck to be seen where 6 years ago there were dozens - I suppose a lot can happen in 6 years. We pushed a note through the post box but nobody has rung us.
Before we went out on Thursday our two foxwatch units had arrived, http://www.conceptresearch.co.uk/foxwatch-fox-deterrent-keep-foxes-away, Annie and Carl had thought they might be worth a try and Carl had sent me this link. Concept Research had sent the units with the wrong batteries, but we did have a 9v one in the house. We positioned one of the units not far from where we'd seen the vixen disappear after the Hedda attack, and we've since bought a couple more 9v batteries and I placed the other foxwatch unit about 40 ft away from the first. Let's hope they do their job of scaring the vixen off when she comes again. I'm not all that confident as I believe they were intended for "normal sized gardens"; the Concept Research team themselves wrote this:
"Our Foxwatch detects up to 40 ft and has a coverage of
approximately 1,350 sq ft. Whilst it will certainly help to deter foxes
it should not be relied upon as the sole deterrent. A hungry fox will not
take any notice of the high pitched screech emitted by the Foxwatch especially
if it has very hungry cubs to feed."
It's a bit late this year, but for next May we're considering constructing a temporary "cage" our of mesh welds, a bit like this one of a duck friend in Germany, only higher:
On Thursday late afternoon I had my first go with the Kärcher pressure washer, cleaning up the floating seat which Annie brought as a present. [This picture is from a couple of years ago when I was ill and John put out the washing for me, using the seat's ropes as extra lines!]
It had been hanging neglected in the first big cherry tree for too long and was very, very dirty and covered in moss. The pressure washer did a brilliant job on it, and I straightaway took the big steps and the very wet floating chair to the big ash where the hammock used to be suspended and also just a few yards from where the vixen had run off after the Hedda attack. It was easy to suspend the chair by its rope; I then fetched a couple of towels and a book and spent some "floating" time on foxwatch until my bottom and back just got too wet even through the two layers of towels - and I did see the vixen just across the field next door at 10 past 8.
On Friday late afternoon [too hot earlier!] I loaded up the steel trolley with all sorts of gardening equipment intending to do some clearance in our 'woodland garden' near the floating chair where the bluebells are, but before I started I just had to read a bit more in a book Annie lent me and which I've found hard to put down since I got into it, the Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim. A truly enchanting book, wonderfully descriptive of scenery and emotions - thank you, Annie! So, of course, I got carried away floating gently in the chair in the cooling breeze and didn't do any work AT ALL - except for rushing off now and again when Candy and Anke gave alarm and I had to chase off Jay-Z, or Tuts or even Georgie - Ben appears to hold off. That's how I saw how easily the little tykes slip in and out of the larger mesh of the fence. John did lots of work though:
The house in the back of this picture was newly built recently, and the owners were sitting out in the garden - enjoying the gorgeous weather all this week - under a sun umbrella every time I went past. I went and introduced myself on Thursday, and the couple were shocked to hear of our losses. But they had seen the vixen several times recently in the middle of the field next door, as early as 10 in the morning. On Thursday evening I'd seen her at the foot of a large ash where I've inserted the brown dog icons in the photos of my view from the floating chair below:
I finally had to leave this peaceful scene on Friday to make us a very late cup of tea. On the way back I took some photos of the "upper residents":
Hard to believe, but both Billie-Jean and Gertie are sitting on the eggs in these two pictures. A couple of days ago B-J didn't come off in the morning for breakfast, and I thought she'd jumped out of the hut as I opened the doors to collect eggs. So I felt brave enough to sort through the eggs in the nest box in order to take out the unmarked ones ............ and she bit me hard on the hand! It had been Gertie who'd left the hut in a hurry.
On Friday late afternoon [too hot earlier!] I loaded up the steel trolley with all sorts of gardening equipment intending to do some clearance in our 'woodland garden' near the floating chair where the bluebells are, but before I started I just had to read a bit more in a book Annie lent me and which I've found hard to put down since I got into it, the Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim. A truly enchanting book, wonderfully descriptive of scenery and emotions - thank you, Annie! So, of course, I got carried away floating gently in the chair in the cooling breeze and didn't do any work AT ALL - except for rushing off now and again when Candy and Anke gave alarm and I had to chase off Jay-Z, or Tuts or even Georgie - Ben appears to hold off. That's how I saw how easily the little tykes slip in and out of the larger mesh of the fence. John did lots of work though:
The house in the back of this picture was newly built recently, and the owners were sitting out in the garden - enjoying the gorgeous weather all this week - under a sun umbrella every time I went past. I went and introduced myself on Thursday, and the couple were shocked to hear of our losses. But they had seen the vixen several times recently in the middle of the field next door, as early as 10 in the morning. On Thursday evening I'd seen her at the foot of a large ash where I've inserted the brown dog icons in the photos of my view from the floating chair below:
I finally had to leave this peaceful scene on Friday to make us a very late cup of tea. On the way back I took some photos of the "upper residents":
Hard to believe, but both Billie-Jean and Gertie are sitting on the eggs in these two pictures. A couple of days ago B-J didn't come off in the morning for breakfast, and I thought she'd jumped out of the hut as I opened the doors to collect eggs. So I felt brave enough to sort through the eggs in the nest box in order to take out the unmarked ones ............ and she bit me hard on the hand! It had been Gertie who'd left the hut in a hurry.
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