I have been advised to be extra vigilant concerning foxes over the winter, a couple of weeks ago a farmer told me just because I've never had a fox in my garden doesn't mean I won't in the future. My breeder friend also told me the same and said its worse in winter when there are no corn crops around. My hope is that they have plenty enough food in the woods they live in so won't need to venture out from their spots, nor detour from their usual paths. we are surrounded by woodland but our home is situated kinda in the middle and is just buildings and roads - I'm about 10/15 min walk from the woods, which ever direction I go. I have been told they don't venture from their usual haunts unless they are starving, is this correct? We have a green close to us which woods surround, its were village fates are held, there are litter bins all around it, there is a take away, and a pub which serves food, none of the bins are ever disturbed by any animal, not even rats nor the many squirrels we have here and I'm hoping its a good sign of there being enough food they don't need to scavenge. I often hear the foxes at night but always at a distance. We have an abundance of crows, magpies and seagulls, I worry because I know people who have had young birds killed by these species, and my youngest being only 11 weeks old, she is vulnerable so I spend a lot of hours outside with them and when its raining I either sit in their run or in the shed - often they end up sitting with me in there too lol, when I'm indoors like now, I either sit close to a window so I can see, or keep looking out. Ours is a bungalow which for me makes things a whole lot easier. I can hear them the whole time and they are really good at giving warning calls, we all go rushing out as soon as hear them, so far has been majority seagulls, crows, magpies they've been spooked by but these never land in our garden, while we are about. When I'm busy indoors I leave the back door open for them to come in if they want, I have laminate flooring, so really easy to just chuck down some disinfectant to clean up any poop mess they make - this morning was constant rain and so much mud, I had loads of muddy duck and chicken foot prints all over the floor, they looked quite cute actually. I don't know much about any type of wild ferrets, my brother had a pet ferret when we were younger, she was so tame, real cuddly and affectionate, we also had an Alsatian, two cats, and two budgies at the time and they all got along and no one ate anyone (nor tried to) - which just goes to show animals can co-exist but like you've said, most are just hungry. Tis always a worry though.
I have to admit I think most birds of prey are beautiful and kestrels are one of my favourites. We have loads of wild pigeons here, before we got our birds, they'd come in our garden for dust baths and used my grandson's climbing frame and his trampoline to perch on, sometimes we'd get up to about 10/15 in our garden and more if you count the ones on the fence but now our girls won't let them in. Pedro our first ever chick we got, started chasing them off when she was about 8 weeks old, she's ok with them sitting on the fence but if they dare to even try to land she'll have em! How do your flock get on with you having pigeons?
