Absolutely. Accidentally mow over some Fox poo and you never forget the smell! Then you have to clean the mower…
Oh yes! Been there…
Wildlife camera, @AngelaR .
The trouble is, I’m not sure I’m strong enough for a wildlife camera because of what I might see! Seeing the fox (and such a big healthy looking fox that is obviously getting enough to eat round here) has me scared enough.
The kittens that were taken, 4/5 of a litter, were exactly 2 weeks old. I think we can be pretty sure it was a fox now. I only knew when I saw mummicat with the last one in her jaws taking it somewhere else.
We have a poultry farm about 800m away from our land, so seeing foxes of various sizes is quite common as they cross our land or skirt through one of the neighbouring fields. Size very much depends on food source and age. Most of the ones around here don’t seem to live very long, probably due to the local hunt and the farmer of said poultry taking a dim view of the foxes’ penchant for eating her livelihood! None of the multiple feral / semi-domesticated cats seem to have suffered from the fox presence though. The main annoyance for us is fox poo and pee, which inevitably is never where you think it should be, and always where you expect it least 
You don’t need to be scared of a fox. I have them as well as badgers deer and wild boar in my garden and the wild boar are the only ones who are remotely scary.
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Badgers can get nasty too…
Only if frightened and cornered, like any creature.
The only reason I am wary of the boar is size and the ability to knock you over and/or bite that all pigs have if they think you are a threat eg to their marcassins.
When the badgers come to eat my windfalls they are delightful to watch and ignore me as long as I am quiet, they run away otherwise and I always feel guilty when that happens because I haven’t been discreet enough. We as a species are such a Bad Thing for wildlife in general that I think we need individually to make an effort to let them live in peace if we are lucky enough to have them around.
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I had a nasty encounter with a badger…maybe it had young nearby but it certainly wasn’t keen on me going for a walk along the path. But yes, in general if you leave them alone they leave you alone. And we try not to kill anything unless it is really causing us a problem.
Well said!
I absolutely second that, once when walking down the lane with my Greyhound on a lead with a ploughed field to the left of us, we both saw an adult wild boar followed by a string of macassins and another adult, trotting in single file towards the road along the border between the field and adjoining forest.
I stopped immediately and tightened my grip on Lira’s lead. No need, she had spotted them too and stopped alongside me. We stood motionless as the whole string continued across the lane and disappeared into the forest on the other side.
I felt 2 things, very privileged to have witnessed it, and very proud of my lovely dog who had the good sense to freeze at the same time.
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My ‘allowing nature to get on with it without interfering’ was with a plant this Spring.
A new plant had appeared in my garden, about 15cms high, right next to my garden table. I had no idea what it was and left it alone to see what it would become.
It proved to be a thistle plant, a huge 2-metre-high bush, that really got in the way, but so what! It would die off eventually and I just dodged around it until then, in my rather unkempt garden this year.
Soon, what seemed to be hundreds of tiny thistle flowers bloomed and attracted a whole variety of small bees, bumble bees and the like. And each flower produced about 20 seeds. An extremely tenacious plant I’d say.
Quite an amazing species - each thistle flower had barbs that stuck to anything – even to a finger, painlessly – to spread its seeds, about 20 seeds per flower.
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I think that’s a Lesser burdock plant, I’m sure it’s edible.
Thanks for that - I searched for what it was without much success so decided, mistakenly, that it must be a thistle!
Gotten off the foxes thread, but no doubt foxes may spread these prickly burdock thistles, and their seeds, far and wide, as nature intended.
Removing these thistles from my cats’ coats wasn’t easy - it’s painful for them - those prickles really don’t want to let go!
The main danger to our own animals from foxes, apart from our poultry, is sarcoptic mange.
Our neighbour’s dog caught it and her back was red raw.
Mind you, they aren’t the best at looking after their animals.
You can then catch it from your pets.