Although winter has apparently only just begun in the human world, a walk around the countryside will suggest that this is actually the beginning of Spring.
Not long into January, and particularly with the warm weather of late, we will start to see the first snowdrops and naturalised winter aconites emerging.
One would hope to smell these delicate blooms but in reality the aroma of Spring tends to be somewhat foul; at this time of year foxes are scent marking their territories and staking their claims for breeding.
Fox droppings tend to be extremely pungent and musky in smell, often grey in appearance with the tell tale remnants of feather quills within.
Often at Yorkshire Water’s Tophill Low Nature Reserve the foxes find their prey under the trees in which wood pigeons roost; easily finding rich pickings from the small percentage which expire off their perch in the night from disease and old age.
They are very adaptable, injured gulls and geese which didn’t made the reservoir’s safety on a night are often dispatched, whilst they are omnivorous too – the autumn hedgerow bounty providing many blackberries which we have often seen them picking.
Their main prey though is voles; the fox’s keen ears are capable of picking up the scrabbling of a rodent under dense grass or even soil from a distance and it uses its stealth to approach within a few feet before making its final leaping strike, pinning the prey and using its long muzzle and canines to winkle out the vole.
A walk along a country path will often show the tell tale burrowed holes along the verges where a fox has been hunting the night before.
Yorkshire Water’s Tophill Low Nature Reserve is located 4 miles off the A164 at Watton and is open daily from 9am to 6pm.
Admission is £2.80 for adults and £1.20 for concessions. Phone 01377 270690 or visit www.tophilllow.blogspot.com for further details.