We met on a dry June morning, just after the sun tried to find colour in the parched grass. I had had no breakfast. She was listening for hers.
And she pounced – the exquisite fox pounce: light, precise, brush-balanced.
In J. David Henry’s lovely book Red Fox: The Catlike Canine, the perfection of the fox physique as a mouse trap is explored. The light bones and small stomach make take-off easier, while the ears are pointed towards her target like guiding beams. I do not see what she caught; it could have been a rodent, but it is just as likely to have been a grasshopper.
It is easy to take for granted the very obvious reality that wild mammals come in all shapes and sizes, but nothing is an accident, and subtleties can add up to survival. Fallow deer are very different from foxes, yet both share the ‘dark above, white below’ motif so widespread in nature. It breaks up light and shade, especially in woodland, giving an edge in camouflage.
It is useful in those moments when a deer is more than a shadow in the morning light.
Deer run on their toe nails – their hooves – to give themselves speed and minimal contact with the ground. They do not pounce of course, but they do leap; I’ve caught them making fine woodland jumps on trailcams a few times.
Resting or leaping, deer or fox, it all feels warm under this midsummer sun.
A Walk with Wildlife 
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