Tuesday 10 February 2015

Fox-watching on a Winter's afternoon

The Rotunda at NT Ickworth


We saw our first fox of 2015 at Ickworth last weekend. We had had a lovely afternoon in Geraldine's Wood, looking for snowdrops and aconites, and decided to move to a more open part of the estate before the light gave way. The fox was small and active. It sat, then ran, then scampered back and sat for a moment. However, what interested me most was its pale colouring, which does not show up very well on these record shots.




I think you will see, however, that there is quite a large pointed area of white fur at the side of the neck. Apparently the fur above the brush is sometimes a grey colour, as can be seen in my photo below.



I found a fox colour chart, and discovered that foxes come in many classified shades.




2 comments:

Crafty Green Poet said...

what a lovely fox! I wasn't aware that there were official shade differences for foxes, though I have noticed some variation in the foxes I've seen.

Amanda Peters said...

How lovely to see , not seen one this year so far. We used to work late doing even classes and would see a fox most nights, large male. He would make is way down to the fish and chip shop to see what was left lying around. I too was not aware there was a shade chart, will have to look this up.
Amanda xx