View from the train of snowy cliffs overlooking the north sea

Snow, St Andrews, and foxes

We started our day today with a lovely train journey through snowy landscapes to visit Daniel in St Andrews. We’ve had snow in the north east of Scotland this week which has made everything very pretty. I took this next photo at Duthie Park yesterday.

The rotunda at Duthie Park in the snow

Here are a couple of photos from the train today.

View from the train of snowy cliffs overlooking the north sea
Another view from the train of snowy cliffs overlooking the north sea

There was no snow in St Andrews which was a little disappointing for Daniel but it’s still lovely nonetheless and Daniel just as happy as ever. He is a very lucky lad. He gets to call these magnificent buildings his home.

University Halls of residence, St Andrews
Another view of University Halls of residence St Andrews

On our last visit we wasted time walking around trying to find somewhere to eat so we took the tried and tested option and went to Pizza Express for lunch today which turned out to be a great decision. They’ve expanded their menu and I had a delicious buddha bowl with whole grains, beetroot, hummus and various other vegetables.

Dad and Daniel at Pizza Express
Daniel, Elizabeth and Rachel at Pizza Express

On our way to the train this morning I spotted this juvenile gull and gave it some breakfast. It seemed very happy about that.

A juvenile gull eating breakfast

Last night it was our turn to feed the foxes – we’re part of volunteer group that has been looking out for them – and on our way we ran into the Ferryhill fox who was very hungry and came quite close to us clearly begging for food. It must be tough for them in winter with the snow. We gave her some dinner. She looks very healthy and her tameness made me think there must be someone else feeding her. I sound muffled because I’m holding my glove in my mouth.

One of the cubs from this year who we’ve been feeding has unfortunately run into difficulties and somehow lost her tail. We don’t know what happened as we don’t know where she sleeps or spends her time when she’s away from the feeding spot. I think she would have died had we not been caring for her as she’s also been struggling with mange which one of the other volunteers successfully treated a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully she’s starting to feel better now. Foxes can survive without their tails but she’ll be feeling the cold more without it as they like to curl up and wrap their tails around themselves when they sleep.


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3 responses to “Snow, St Andrews, and foxes”

  1. Tim McDermott Avatar
    Tim McDermott

    Last Spring I resumed my off again, on again campaign to become a crow friend. I had a few crows eating peanuts ( roasted in shell, no salt) when I noticed that foxes also eat peanuts. The crows gradually lost interest, but least one fox dropped by every night and cleaned out the peanuts.

    Then the county (Fairfax, VA, USA) put out a notice requesting an end to fox feeding. It turns out supporting foxes is detrimental to several species that really don’t need more preditors.

    I miss the fox.

    1. Rachel M Avatar

      Foxes love peanuts. I sometimes leave some out for them. A peanut butter sandwich is also good. Wouldn’t feeding the foxes help those other species as the foxes would have less need to predate them? Are foxes native there? They are here and we’ve had a significant drop in numbers in rural areas although urban fox populations are stable probably because we’re all feeding them 😉

  2. studentfantasticaa3101637d Avatar
    studentfantasticaa3101637d

    The Fox is native here. Population dynamics is complex (complex is now the polite word for chaos). In fact a tiny predator-prey model was involved in chaos theory development.

    I don’t have a copy of the county’s announcement, but they listed species that would lose population as well as the species that would gain. I trust that these folks know their business. They recently decided that our growing coyote population should be treated as valuable members of county fauna, because they would decrease our deer and Canada geese populations. Both are considered pests.

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