A Walk with Wildlife

Two sisters. One is being quiet and boring. The other is enjoying her food. What is a bored young fox to do? Only one choice: take to the air!

That air is getting sweeter. September has brought high clouds whose edges glow cleanly at dawn, and enough rain to repaint the land a tentative green. Earthworm casts raise miniature mountains on footpaths and the lives of those species which hunt them are a little easier. Out in the meadow, these triplet cubs had a broad menu after yesterday’s mowing. A shorter, springier carpet now, one where insects and other mouthfuls can be sought.

I was not surprised to see them there; I remember from Romania how foxes would appear in meadows after harvest. Yet, as strong a motivation as their stomachs are, a fox’s innate compulsion to play always lurks, simmering. Hence, an airbourne male cub trying a mousing leap on his sister – he landed shy of her, which was probably just as well, but that was not the end of his tricks. I have rarely seen a fox attempt a “play bow”, but here we are.

He tried flopping.

He tried just being absurd.

But alas, both sisters were unmoved.

Perhaps he should have moved closer to people. After all, the cubs in my garden have something to amuse them whatever their siblings are up to: a greenhouse!

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Sadly for them, I will have to close the door soon as night temperatures drop. I will miss their digging in my eggplant bed and their devoted interest in my gardening gloves.

I wait with some anticipation the game that they will invent instead.