October 22nd, 1998

The most noteable record for this week has been the sighting of a fox, two days ago, during daylight hours. The fox was in a field just behind the trees at the bottom of the cricket field at about 7:45 a.m.. It spotted me and the two pupils who I was walking with but it continued to move across thebeech.gif (12231 bytes) field in an unhurried fashion, passing between some grazing sheep. It was interesting to note that the sheep barely acknowledged the presence of the fox, even though it passed within a few feet of them. I imagine that their reaction would have been very different if lambs had been present. After pausing for a while near the stream that runs along the edge of the field, it disappeared form view behind the bank of the stream.

Although daylight sightings such as this one are unusual in this area, there is plenty of evidence that foxes are active around the grounds at night-time. One of the things to watch for is the small scrapings or overturned clods of earth on the ground beneath the trees, where the foxes often search for food items. Another sign that the foxes are around is that animal corpses, or scraps left by sparrowhawks, often disappear overnight.