Night Fox

Every now and then occurs one of those magic moments of gift, just being in the right place at the right time. Last night I woke up about 3am unable to get back to sleep I decided to go down and have a cup of tea and finish my soduku. As I came into the kitchen I thought I could hear the fox yapping in the garden so I left the kitchen light off and turned on the deck light. There completely unbothered by the light was a young fox apparently hunting mice under the wooden path. I watched him for about 20 minutes going up and down the path sniffing at all the cracks, poking his paw in, digging, moving wood around, obviously following something! I put out left over food, lamb bones etc for the fox (on the basis that having a fox is inevitable in London so you might as well have a healthy one!) but hadn't seen him for several weeks, was beginning to think he'd got run over. It was just a lovely time watching him. I always feel privileged when wild creatures come into the garden, foxes, frogs, finches, sparrowhawks, bats, dragonflies - the ones just out of the usual. The other night in the early hours I heard a bird land and walk on the tiles. It had to be a tawny owl pausing in its hunting. I wish I could have seen it.