Fox cubs 2022 and magpie attack

 Every Spring I look out for the arrival of fox cubs. I normally see them in mid May, although last year, 2021, I saw them in early April. I mentioned that I had seen them earlier that year as they seemed to be living under the shed in front of my window, rather than in a den further away. See my blog of the dates.

So in 2022 I started looking out for the cubs. My favourite fox, who was a parent last year, and would come for food every afternoon and spend hours sitting under my window, disappeared in mid April. I guess she/he died. One of last year's cubs would often compete with her for food. This is her snoozing below my window -

I kept looking out and listening for any sign of cubs. I noticed that 2 of the foxes who come for food were taking food away so I assumed they were feeding some youngsters in a den. One of those was last year's cub, which surprised me. 

On 9 May I looked out late afternoon and saw a cub following a fox. I grabbed my camera and only managed to get one shot before they went out of view. They then appeared below my window and to my amazement, the older fox was last year's cub. Was this the parent?

The 2021 cub is still quite small. It has always been a real character, like a precocious child, very adventurous and a dominant little character. It would compete for food against adult foxes and certainly knew how to stand up for itself. So in a way I wasn't surprised it had become a parent in its first year.  See red fox breeding. It had always liked to climb and had no fear of heights, here it is on shed roofs last August -

After seeing the one and only cub on 9 May, I was away for a week. After my return there was still no sign of it, though the parent was still running off with food.

In my blog from last year I mentioned how crows and magpies became very vocal in May and June, as if trying to remove potential predators from their chicks. The same thing is happening this year. The magpies are squawking a lot, especially when a fox appears. The foxes take no notice. But the magpies are persistent and even harass and attack the foxes tail.

After this attack the fox jumped up onto a storage container

I'll continue to look out for more fox cub sightings. I know a few foxes have disappeared recently, mainly those with mange, as well as my afore mentioned favourite. So maybe there were less cubs born this year.

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UPDATE

Didn't see the cub again until 3 weeks later, 29 May. And on subsequent days, it seemed to be with this fox, who is the second of the two who come for food. So I wonder if they are both the parents. I've seen the smaller one roll over onto its back when greeting the larger one. 

Thankfully the magpie squawking only lasted a week or so. 

2023 :

Haven't seen any fox cubs this year which is unusual, and only a couple of timid foxes come round for food. So there have been no magpies screaming at the foxes this year. However a crow has been squawking at foxes since May 17.