Tales from the Fairy Glade

Are you sitting comfortably, then I will tell a couple of tales. There is a family that live in a small cottage, on a country lane surrounded by woodland. They live a simple life growing their own food and keep a few hens. Does this sound like anyone you know..well it is me actually. Living as we do in the country we are invariably visited by the local wildlife. Since getting the hens we have attracted the attention of the local fox population who have put young, tender chicken on their menu. We have lost 3 birds and have disturbed Mr Fox on several occassions thus averting more attacks. On one sorte he actually had Marmaduke in his mouth. A bonk on the head with a broom was enough to make him run for is life and saved our handsome man bird.

wikipedia

It is hard because we are sharing their environment, (note that I say we are sharing their habitat and not the other way round). I firmly believe that they have as much right to be there as we have. It is just such a shame that we are at odds with each other because they are beautiful animals. At great expense we have now installed an electric fence which, fingers crossed, seems to be working and the foxes have kept a low profile. That is until yesterday at breakfast. As I sat there at the table eating a fresh laid egg I was aware of movement out of the corner of my eye. There in the corner by the chalk pile was a fox sitting there looking at me looking at him. Within a few seconds he was joined by another one who sat beside him and looked at me looking at them! It was one of those special moments in time and would have made a smashing photo if I could have gone out without disturbing them. They seemed perfectly at ease and on checking later it looks like they have dug out a bit of earth and made themselves a little den.

Several days later I did manage to take this rather poor photo whilst Mr/Mrs Fox was asleep. Couldn't get close enough but he is the brown blob in the middle of the picture!

The second tale involves a collared dove having a bath in a rut in the lane that was full of rain water. As I approached in the car, I slowed down and assumed that said bird would jump out of the way..like you do! Well, not in this instance. She cocked her head to one side and stared me in the eye. Literally stared me in the eye, and in my head I could hear her say; "just you wait a minute whilst I finish my bath", and so I did. I sat and I sat and she splashed and preened and splashed somemore. She eventually jumped out, shook her bottom at me and then flew into the hedgerow, and that was that! So wish that I had got my camera with me. Good job it was a country lane with only little old silly me at the wheel. There are those who would have driven over her and the some who go so fast that they probably wouldn't have even seen her!

A bit of help please, I note that when I click onto photos that I place in my blog, they do not come up on a seperate screen like those on other blogs. Can anyone advise what I am doing wrong. In the case of the fox piccy, if you could click on and then enlarge the photo you would see the fox more clearly. Dev X