A Walk with Wildlife

Ripples in the birdbath, darkness in the skies – that is beautiful now. The drought has broken, at least for the time being; the land is still brown, but it no longer crunches, and the stars and moon look as if they have been polished. Airborne creatures of all sizes have a better playground.

This is a hummingbird hawk moth, a species that has had quite a summer. Sightings have been reported widely in the UK. I’ve come across five or so myself, usually around red valerian.

On the ground, foxes no longer feel warm tarmac under their feet. Until now, this year’s cubs will have barely known rain, but they are familiar enough with one major challenge in a fox’s life: other foxes. Red foxes can be politely described as reluctantly social. They will groom or play with each other, but peace always feels fragile. Not for foxes the cooperative hunting behaviour of wolves or the lifelong bonds of golden jackals.

So when I saw two foxes standing nose-to-nose on the road tonight, it was no great surprise that the sound effects soon became this. (Note for email readers: video with audio follows.)

Perfectly bloodless, as usual, but it ended with one fox shooting out across the pavement like a cork popped from a bottle. The squabbles are likely to become even more frequent over the next few months as cubs begin to disperse and the countdown to breeding season starts.

They are growing up, as indeed are the roe deer fawns.

Let us hope that their next steps are into a slightly damper world.