2 Weeks in North Wales Pt 4 of 6 Foxes on the Little orme

As we were staying very close to the Little orme, my main focus was to get to the top of the Little orme and work our way down to Angel bay to see if the Grey seals were in the area of the beach. On our way down from the summit we spotted 2 Ravens and 5-6 Choughs tumbling through the air over the edge of the cliffs which was amazing to watch on a warm summers day. I was hoping to see the young Kestrels riding the thermals and learning how to fly but no luck fingers crossed for July as it would be great to film.

After a few hours on the summit we climbed down the steep rocky path down to one of the most stunning views I have ever seen in North Wales which is the view over the Irish sea looking down onto Angel bay and the mountains in the background I always feel so refreshed and trouble free when resting here also its a great location for spotting the marine life in the summer months from Basking sharks, Dolphins and Porpoises have been seen here in 2010 from July to October.

As we were resting up from behind us in a sheep field a Adult Fox ran past allowing some time to get a few shots before it disappeared into a small copse in the middle of an area of farmland but this was not our first sighting of a fox that week as you will see in the rest of this blog.

After returning to the caravan to rest up and recharge camera battery's we decided to return at 6pm to the area we spotted the Fox and we setup on one of the highest hills so we would have a good vantage point of the whole area of the fields and within five minutes we spotted an adult leading a cub through a sheep field stopping to feed every so often.

 One of the cubs and mum relaxing on the cliffs of the Little Orme watching dog walkers pass by below.

I tried to get closer but they both bolted into the copse again and after an hour seeing nothing on a small cliff side path behind us I spotted another fox looking down onto the sea over the edge of a cliff as there was Fulmars nest just below but this allowed for some great shots of a fox with the sea behind it which is one of the crucial shots i need for Wild ormes of the North and the story of a coastal Fox family.

As the week went on we spent many days filming and photographing the family of Foxes which turned out to be made up of 2 adults and 4 cubs which in the end seemed to be quite relaxed by the time we discovered the den location and an area where they bathed in the sun and socialised with each other from the cubs fighting deep in the undergrowth to them learning from there parents in order to survive.

After filming them from a distance and in the day I wanted to film the cubs and adults up close up in the day and at night.  So to film in the day I tried to get close with the camcorder I used to film the Oystercatcher nest and I discovered a motion trigger mode so its seemed perfect after setting up close to the area they were active and throwing down some scraps and leaving the area with the camera hidden away and it was away from any public footpath.
The Corvids in the area took most of the food before the battery dying so I think I will give it another go in July with a backup power source and bury the bait to keep the birds away to give the foxes a chance to find the food.

I will post some footage in the next post of the Foxes at night when I camera trapped the ormes and I also got footage of them in color as I got some wonderful shots of the family together.

Thanks for reading my blog

Stay wild, be happy and be safe
 

Mike