I have been staring at my screen trying to decide where to begin again on this blog. The more I think about it, the less likely I am to write about it. So I went to my stats page for a bit of inspiration... and the top reason people are finding this blog is because they want to identify poop.

Fox poop is the poop of choice today.

Well - if I'm going to write a pile of shit in an effort to be creative, I might as well try to be useful. *grin*

Personally, I think that getting to know poop is a fab passtime. Most wildlife, especially mammals, tend to stay hidden - and who can blame them? - so it adds something to a walk if you can get a sense of the secret life of a deserted path, and who has been sharing the space.

Foxes are quite common in the UK. In towns and cities, their populations are on the increase as they take advantage of our untidy behaviour. Urban foxes are often more visible and daring than their rural counterparts, possibly because there's not the same culture of lamping in gardens and parks as there is in the countryside. (A practise this blogger wholly disagrees with, in case it wasn't obvious.)

In the countryside, you are more likely to see fox droppings than you are to see the fox - but you might have some difficulty differentiating it from all the other poop (especially those left by irresponsible dog owners! don't get me started!), so here's a few tips and a wee sketch I made for you. I may add new photos for your viewing pleasure at a later date, but there is a blurry fox dropping here.

The general rule of thumb is that a carnivore dropping is usually sausage shaped with one rounded end and one pointed end. In the case of the Red Fox, their dropping are used to mark territory and they are often found in the middle of a path or - even better - on a raised place such as a step, a rock, a tussock, or even a handy mole hill.

Foxes have a varied diet and they scavenge as well as hunt. This means the colour and content of their droppings can vary a great deal, especially in Autumn when there are lots of berries to gorge on. Fox droppings may contain bones, feathers, fur, insect chitin and recycled Chinese takeways. Fox droppings are usually 8-10cm long but foxes will often spread their droppings out which makes it harder to see the pointy end, or the full size. Over time, your powers of observation will get to know the poops in a given spot and hopefully you will get the best confirmation of all - a fox sighting.

Have you found any interesting tracks and signs recently?

More »

Beginning With Fox Droppings originally appeared on Taexalia on January 15, 2012.

Mountain Hare moves first

Chooses direction later

Move and see what's coming...

More »

Haiku ~ Mountain Hare originally appeared on Taexalia on September 14, 2011.

I found this little fellow on my garden path looking a bit dazed and confused. He seemed to be trying to get somewhere, but unable to fly.

Our bees are precious and they are under threat and I tried to help by sending Himself inside to dilute some honey with water on a saucer. I nudged the bee off my finger onto the plate and he immediately began to drink. It took quite a while for him to get his fill, but then a bees tongue is a tiny, tiny thing - can you see it in the photo?

Once he finished drinking, he climbed onto a twig I had provided and spent another wee while just resting before he flew away. I hope he's guzzling lavender pollen somewhere as I type...

More »

Red Tailed Bee Taks A Dram originally appeared on Taexalia on June 7, 2011.

I gaze out at the hazy blue sky, relishing the bright sunshine after days of wind and rain. I am up early, getting things done, energised. A movement catches my eye and I am mesmerised by the sailing shape of a Buzzard. This is the front window that looks over the town to the Forth and I am used to watching Buzzards out the back windows. I relish this unusual sight.

Then a Crow flies into the picture and swipes at the tail of the Buzzard, disturbing the smooth soaring motion. Another Crow joins in as they harass the Buzzard to move along. I cannot choose between them, admiring the Buzzard for its solitude and graceful flight and also the Crows for their gutsy defense of their boundaries.

Perhaps today I am more about the Buzzard, moving on and away from distractions and crazymakers...

More »

Flying Solo originally appeared on Taexalia on April 7, 2011.

I caught a segment of the BBC morning show this morning that left me disappointed and throwing my hands up in the air at what passes for "work" these days. The segment was supposed to be highlighting how gardeners can help to combat the decline in butterfly numbers by planting butterfly friendly plants. You can imagine my disappointment (and random mutterings) when the entire segment seemed to focus on "plant Buddleia and aren't we all having a lovely staged chat in this pretty garden?"

The guest of the slot appeared to be a dedicated butterfly conservationist who was billed as an "amateur gardener". We didn't hear very much from her, or get much information about the beautiful garden she has created as a haven for butterflies. We did hear a lot from the wittering "reporter".

Well, yes, of course you can plant Buddleia. You can especially plant the pink and lilac shades of Buddleia that flutterbies like best. But what if you want more? Or what if you want to attract/help butterflies and you don't have a garden big enough for a Buddleia?

Here's some collected wisdom on butterfly friendly gardens:

• Single flower forms are preferable so butterflies can get to the nectar (think Pot Marigold instead of French Marigold)
• Wall planters, window baskets, hanging baskets and patio pots are fab if space is limited
• Hang a bowl filled with pieces of ripe fruit (bananas, strawberries, oranges, apples etc) covered in fruit juice to make a simple butterfly feeder
• Make a mineral drink by placing some rounded pebbles in a saucer and add some muddy water and place in full sun near their favourite feeding place

Butterfly plants:

• Buddleia - pink and lilac forms
• Petunias
• Trailing Lobelia
• White Alyssum
• Million Bells
• Bur Marigold
• June Berry
• Lavender
• Ivy
• Hops
• Wallflowers
• Honesty
• Heliotrope
• Scabious
• Phlox
• Rudbeckia (fulgida)
• Aster
• Purpletop Vervain
• Echinacea (Purple coneflower)
• Purple Loosestrife

Once you have planted up some butterfly plants, get involved with the Butterfly Conservation Trust Campaign and Big Butterfly Count (July 16-30).

More »

Butterfly Flutterby originally appeared on Taexalia on April 5, 2011.

I confess I am tired of the snow.

It's hard walking a hound in a world where the motion of cars is The Most Important Thing. This translates to a street where the pavements have been used as a dumping place for snow. We have to walk on the road. Is it on the road, or in the road? Either/Or.

People are digging out their cars and throwing snow onto the pavement, sometimes they are throwing it onto the pavement across the street from their own home. Sometimes they are doing this after the Cooncil have cleared that pavement and tried to make it vaguely passable for pedestrians.

People are digging out their driveways and making prideful comments about how talented they are at building snow walls. These snow walls extend their drive all the way to the kerb, sometimes further. They block the pavement with a wall of snow that will be the last snow to melt. Their gardens remain pretty with pristine, undisturbed snow.

The roads have been cleared and sanded and salted, forming a brown, ugly, mushy layer that bids to prevent ice forming. Some drivers see a clear road and return to "normal" driving - always pushing the speed limit. Their blinkered determination to get to the shops turns pedestrians into target practise. They sound their horn because people cannot, or will not, immediately climb into thigh deep snow piles (some of which were created by the very driver with their hand on the horn) to allow them to continue careening forwards as fast as possible.

They scare old people, and they scare dogs. Actually they scare whomever happens to be unlucky enough to be walking in their path.

I realise I am not tired of snow, I am just tired of hearing about community spirit when faced with the real behaviour of drivers in this community.

I am not tired of the sunrise on the Scots Pine.

More »

Morning Sunshine originally appeared on Taexalia on December 9, 2010.

It finally snowed last night. All week I have been seeing pictures, news reports, status updates and chatter about snow. All week I have been trying to big up the slivers of frost caught in the gaps between paving stones, willing them to expand.

Last night we took the hound for his bedtime walk. I wore a fleece and a singular pair of trousers. It was cold, but yet again - no snow. As we rounded the corner and looked out over the Firth, we could see the weather front that was dropping white stuff on Edinburgh. But it wasn't snowing here. Again.

Then I caught sight of something happening in the orange glow of a streetlight at the end of the road.

"Is that snow?"

"No," he says.

Then we both got stinging dots on our cheeks and grinned as the first snowflakes hit us.

The Hound pondered about, sniffing more, dancing a bit, wheechin about like a loony. We commented again about that weather front now crossing the Firth.

Within minutes we realised it wasn't crossing the Firth, it was already here - and now delivering horizontal snow all over us.

"Hurry up and poop!"

A more pointless cry I've never made as my fleecy frontage became snowboobs.

This morning we have a covering of snow that is, in terms of much of the rest of these islands, pathetic. But it is good enough for me, crisp enough and thick enough to let me know that my Roe Deer theory has been correct these last few weeks.

More »

Snow Shoes originally appeared on Taexalia on November 27, 2010.

Doorways, gateways, arches, wooden doors with big iron hinges and locks, caves, animal burrows and places where trees meet across a path... These can all be liminal spaces, places where a transition is made.

I found a wonderful liminal space whilst walking at Lochore Meadows, Fife. As I ambled along the path and rounded a bend, I was taken with the vision of the natural archway that the Hawthorn and Scots Pine made, and the way they framed the Sycamore and Alder trees in their Autumn glory.

Another perfect Samhain vision as the threshold of winter slips past and we move into the darkness, but not without a last blast of vivid colour...

More »

Autumn Gateway originally appeared on Taexalia on November 1, 2010.

Samhain, Hallowe'en, the end of summer...

The life force is ebbing inward

The oak leaf is reborn with each new colour

When it is gone

The acorn holds

A promise

More »

Life Death Rebirth originally appeared on Taexalia on October 31, 2010.

I remembered to take my camera with me this morning, but I forgot to take a pair of gloves. I will have to give in and accept that summer is officially over, and go in search of my winter warmers.

I don't think that Jack Frost arrived so early last year, yet the Hawthorn and Rowan are laden with red berries and this suggests a hard winter. Folklore, I'm told, and yet the early frost suggests there might be some truth to it...

More »

First Frost originally appeared on Taexalia on October 20, 2010.