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Country Matters June 2004
I have just come from the garden having seen a fox cub run alongside our garden fence. This would have been a rare sight when I was young and it is doubtful that the fox would have survived for long. My grandfather who kept free-range hens would soon have had the strychnine bottle out and before such effective poisons became available it was the snare or leg hold trap that would have ended the fox’s life.The fox now has few natural enemies; a few gamekeepers and the odd hunt that gives them an exercise run are all they have to fear. Their numbers have increased so greatly that disease is now a bigger threat especially to the urban fox. Winter starvation is no longer an important population control. We provide Civic Amenity Sites, garden compost heaps, put out food for the cat every night and even the cat, all of which provide a ready meal. Most humans only see the fox’s attractive side. It is only if you are a gamekeeper or keep free range stock such as hens, ducks, breeding pigs or sheep that their attraction palls. A keeper just outside the Parish shoots between 250 and 300 foxes each year but as the fox is territorial the empty territory is very quickly filled. The combine driver on my farm had 12 foxes come out of a single field at harvest.
When the fox does upset its human neighbours in towns it is trapped and transported to the countryside and let loose. But being territorial the existing inhabitants move the newcomers on. Also the released fox appears to have little idea of how to fend for itself in the countryside as numerous reports of tame foxes following tractors and visiting houses in broad daylight confirm. A local person who was employed in transporting the trapped animals from certain towns used to confirm these one-way day trips to the countryside.
But despite this most humans still like foxes. Even our grounds man Ray Peake who left his house for a couple of hours one afternoon and returned to find at least 12 hens had disappeared was philosophical about his loss. He found some of the bodies in shallow graves in a nearby field; foxes always store food in times of plenty. He is even talking of getting more replacements after several losses this winter, as he hates to see the foxes go hungry. Marion Swetenham, Pound Farm House and Vivienne Matthews, Long Lane have also suffered recent hen losses.
In the garden I have had three sitting pheasants taken from their nests, a mallard lost its eggs but escaped with its life and two cock pheasants who spent too much time chasing the females and not enough looking after their own safety also lost their lives. Our dominant cock is hobbling on one leg and has lost its tail feathers to a fox. The two mallard that nested on top of the Leylandii hedges have reared fourteen and three ducklings and one still survives with a nest of eggs under our living room window.
One piece of good news for foxes is that farmers are going to be paid to leave un-drilled areas in their crops to encourage nesting skylarks. We know this idea works but how long will it take foxes to learn that these areas will provide a ready hors-d’oeuvre of lark and eggs. I am sure the politicians will remedy that problem with a crash educational course for the fox to change its dietary habits like they are trying to do for humans.
Wildlife Reports for June 2004
I will start where I finished last month with further reports of grass snakes. They either had a successful breeding season last year or they really are at last making a recovery in numbers. Mr. and Mrs. Dawson had a sighting while walking along Pods Brook, Ken Turner saw an 18 to 20 inch specimen sunning itself down Kings Farm Lane, Veronica Pollit disturbed one while moving her compost heap at Duckend Green and over the hedge Sylvia Jiggins had one in her flower bed. When I was young it was common to find their eggs, which are white and leathery in old muck clamps. The rotting manure provided the warmth for the eggs to hatch. I have always believed that the loss of these clamps is one of the factors that caused their decline, so perhaps the resurgence of garden composting is helping them to increase. Veronica did not find any eggs in her heap but do be on the lookout for them when you move compost. Corinne Pearson had two parrots or parakeets in her garden, one green and one blue with black markings on its head.Pauline Turner found a large plant of Ragged Robin where the footpath and the soon to be created bridleway cross the A120 by the farm accommodation bridge into Black Notley Country Park.
Sheila Buxton saw a badger ‘ambling’ across the road from the Swan pub to the playing field. The nearest sett is on the Flitch Way but there is also a very large one on David McGregors farm.
Andy Goodey reports two male Turtle Doves ‘purring’ along the Flitch way, Spotted Flycatchers one in the garden opposite the Swan pub and one along Shalford Road just past Pods lane and a pair of Lapwings on the field adjoining the footpath from Queenborough Lane to the Flitch Way. He speculates whether they are a breeding pair or early autumn migrants. Fifty years ago I did find the occasional Lapwing nest or young in the Parish but have not seen them for many years. A late May report from Andy was of a Little Owl and two tufted duck from the footpath to Rumney Wood and a Hobby, Cinnabar moth and a pair of Great Spotted Woodpeckers feeding young in the field opposite the Cock pub. I also watched the woodpecker nest site as the parent fed one the young with a large grasshopper. Green Woodpeckers are nesting in the same hole as last year in our garden. The Green W/P parents regurgitate the food when they feed their young. This is a common method of feeding by birds that have to travel long distances with food or are feeding young a large number of small food items. The Green W/P used to feed on mostly Wood Ant larvae but they now seem to take Tipula (Daddy Long Legs), Leather Jacket and various other larvae from lawns for food.
Stop Press- Syl has just rushed in and reported a large fat (pregnant?) grass snake under the old carpet on one of our compost heaps, is it about to lay eggs? Report next month.
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