I was walking past a fence and heard a noise and saw this squirrel. At first glance I thought it had a huge tumour on its face. I grabbed my phone camera and zoomed in, which was a mistake, as the phone camera doesn't do well on the zoom. I then realised the lump was actually a young squirrel.
It's the first time I've seen a squirrel carry its young. The young are kits or kittens and are born in March/April.
I saw the first fox cub on Easter Sunday, 4 April 2021. That's about 6 weeks earlier than normal.
Normally I first see the fox cubs in mid May, this has been consistent for the last 4 years. In 2020 it was the 12 May; 2019 17 May; 2018 on 17th May & in 2017 on 15 May.
In 2021 I was excited to see the first cub on April 4. I then saw 3 on the 7th. They were much smaller than when I normally first see them. They were also noticably darker. This is because their fur is very short and dark when born, normally in March, but by the time I see them in May, the coat has lightened in colour.
I later realised why I had seen them so early - they all seem to be living under the shed in front of my windows. In previous years they had been born in dens somewhere in the allotments and I only saw them when mum let them out after a few weeks. But this year I was particularly lucky in seeing them probably soon after their eyes had opened.
Info from this wildlife page -
"Newborn fox cubs are blind, deaf, dark-grey in colour and weigh about 120g.
After 14 days, their eyes open. Their pupils are slate-blue. Guard hairs appear, giving cubs a fuzzy appearance. They have small, floppy ears and weigh about 350g.
After four weeks, the cub’s pupils are grey flecked with brown. The muzzle starts to lengthen. White fur appears around the mouth and patches of red on the face.
The coat is still woolly, but the ears are now erect.
After eight weeks, the pupils become amber-coloured and the cub’s face approaches adult proportions. Its fur is largely adult colour but still looks woolly."
Video of little wobbly legs on 17 April -
As the days progressed, I noticed there were some tiny cubs and some older ones, but they were all playing together. I don't know if the really small ones were just younger or if they are the runts! Quite often the bigger ones would just knock over the tiny ones, especially if rushing for food. They all seemed to be eating solids.
They were still suckling from mum. This mum has about 6 cubs all trying to feed with another 2 or so playing nearby, they are of different sizes so I don't know if they are all hers.
This vixen is suckling just 2 cubs -
Some of the smaller cubs lie on their backs to feed.
One of the younger cubs in the morning sunlight, it still has the fuzzy appearance -
A bigger cub -
One of the parents -
Two parents and 3 cubs -
Cubs start eating solids at about 4 weeks. This one is eating a piece of pizza
This vixen is suckling 8 or 9 cubs, they don't keep still long enough to count. They seem to be of different ages so are probably not all hers -
I'll add photos as I get them.
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June update :
By June the cubs were much more independent. However I did see a few of them trying to suckle from mum on 10 June, though mum wasn't so patient by then. The runts were still noticeably smaller than their siblings. One of the mums seemed to have a favourite who was often alongside her and would be allowed to take food or was given food.
Foxes are usually silent except during mating time. But one of the mums has become quite vocal. She calls a lot, I guess it is the equivalent of a dog barking or giving a yap to get attention. However the fox's call is quite high pitched and more like a cat. This mum has learnt to call when she wants food. She knows when humans are around, and sits and waits for food, giving a call now and again. And I watched one lady putting food down for the foxes, with the vixen sitting nearby calling, as if to say hurry up!
During May and early June, one or maybe two really annoying crows would caw loudly at the foxes. It would sit on the fence above the fox and just scream at it. The foxes would take no notice. Occasionally the crows would almost dive bomb the foxes. I don't know if it was because the crows had youngsters or a nest nearby - I don't know where the crows nest. The rest of the year this behaviour doesn't happen. Thankfully the crowd stopped this by mid June.
Magpies are also screeching at foxes this time of year, so I guess they have babies as well. The magpies often sit on the ground near a fox screaming at it, and sometimes even pecking the back end of the fox.
Another day there was an awful ruckus. It sounded as if every magpie in the neighbourhood was screeching, then lots of crows joined in (crows and magpies are normally "enemies") and there was also a fox "screaming". It sounded like a war. I got my binoculars and saw one fox sniffing at some black feathers. So I assume a fox managed to catch a magpie and ate it, then other foxes came to sniff the leftovers.
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In July, the mums start competing with the cubs for food.
October is when the young foxes leave their families to go alone. And start growing their winter coat.
