Finding out there was a fox visiting my garden was exciting but also worrying. They can make a lot of mess and their poo/spray is very smelly. Foxes can also dig up plants and generally cause mayhem. I think they are cute but I didn't want them around permanently. I decided to set up FoxCam to learn more about their habits.
It turns out that my neighbour had been storing bin bags behind her shed. The fox was using my garden as a corridor to access a nightly free meal before returning for a drink afterwards. I decided to watch for a few more days to make sure, then block up the hole between the two properties.
No sooner had I gone back to work full-time than something had been sniffing around. These footprints were scattered around several parts of the garden. What could it be?
To find out, I invested in a sooper-dooper wildlife camera that is triggered by movement both at day and night. How exciting! That meant I could leave it running when I wasn't there. I decided to train it on the pond, mainly out of curiosity - but also to see if the creature that had made such a mess came for a drink or two.
It starts here...
This big old beast was starting to cause a problem. The roots were lifting up the patio area and creeping towards the house. Eventually, they would cause structural damage. It had to come down.
But that was a real shame. Not only are trees really important because they produce oxygen, this one was a habitat for hundreds, if not thousands, of insects. It was also used by lots of bird species including blackbirds, woodpigeons, magpies, blue tits, robins, great tits, long-tailed tits, coal tits, sparrows, wrens and even Britain's smallest bird - the goldcrest!
If the tree was going to have to go, I needed to do something else to make sure that wildlife still had a reason to come in and enjoy the urban oasis that a garden can provide.
Unfortunately not the ones with chocolate chips.
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