Fox tracks

The snow has afforded the opportunity to detect a fox foraging very close to the house last night. The footprints were a bit indistinct as the snow had become a bit slushy but they seem to correspond to the features of a fox rather than a cat. I was surprised to learn that a fox adopts a different gait in snow. On a firm surface it trots with a diagonal gait so that the fore and hind footprints are obliquely next to each other. In snow it adopts a straight position and the footprints are found in a straight line.

Goldcrest seen locally

Just a couple of days after the Garden Birdwatch I was walking across farmland less than a mile away when I had a close encounter with a Goldcrest - a species that I have yet to record on Moat House land. It seemed happy to be foraging on a tree less than a couple of metres away from me. These are not uncommon and I have seen them a couple of times before in the village but not for the last four or five years.