Camberwell wildlife
Published by Peter | Filed under General
I live near the railway line and often see a number of foxes (three together, one night) running around the streets. There have been a number of cat disappearances in my area recently. These two facts may not be entirely unrelated.
I like to see the foxes (even though they may be killing cats). I like to see squirrels, magpies, crows, robins and wood pigeons. I like to see ladybirds and even the occasional spider.
I am not quite so happy to see a mouse in my kitchen.
May 31st, 2006
I was in Lucas Gardens with my 3-year-old girl Rosie recently and fell into conversation with a mum who had something to say, which was unususal in itself. She lives near the top of Shenley Road and said that a fox had taken the family guinea pig AND rabbit.
We have a big mouse problem in our flat. Their skeletons are very delicate and incredibly interesting. Their ribcages are like lace.
Around where I live (by Ruskin Park) we have a troublesome fox who has been terrorising all the pets recently — I think he’s killed a cat or two as well — which is a shame because a lot of cats around here like my garden because it has a lot of shade and I’ve become quite used to their presence there even though they are not mine — hope he doesn’t do anything to my favorite — the bloodthirsty git that he is — I’m sure country folk are releasing them here just to piss us urbanites off…
Or might it be bird lovers encouraging urban foxes? Kill a lot of birds these cats. No offence…
Christian, I think you may have a point. My boyfriend and I keep trying to entice more birds to our garden, we have a range of feeders, all different types, different foods and spread out over our patch but so far with little sucess.
We live in hope that one day we’ll get one of those wild parrots which the BBC reported are living in south London, apparently they’ve been spotted in Peckham.
I’m on ‘team fox’ the cats in our area are a real pain, keep digging up my garden and even wandering into the house when I leave the patio doors open!
Having said that a fox wandered into my neighbours house and up the stairs as well…Think it was after her chihuahua…
We have NO birds in our garden because of cats. We can hear them but they don’t come down to ground level. This makes our bird feeder very economical.
WE did have occasional foxes, they actually managed to wear a hole out in the lawn, but since we put up a ten foot fence to discourage uninvited humans (exclusively male in our experience) from also being in our garden — in our house and on our roof — the foxes have dropped off the sighting index, so have the humans.
We didn’t commission an environmental impact analysis before putting up the fence. In retrospect a little rash going ahead without it. Lucky that ODPM let us get away with it.
Ben’s rodent control tip:
After extensive experimentation, I can recommend Rentokil humane mousetraps from Homebase, baited with salmon fishcake and Sainsbury’s tomato chutney. Then simply release the pernickety blighters into the wilds of Burgess Park.
Good one Ben