WHEN THE WOODLAND COMES ALIVE

There they were, just 20 yards away. Five of them, bright-eyed and bushy tailed. Five fox cubs as beguiling as any litter of pups.

They were playing on a hump of soil, just a yard or two from fresh earth. I chanced on them in a woodland glade just as light began to fade.

For ten minutes I watched. Then as I inched sideways and brushed the hazel screen that hid me they looked up, took fright and disappeared into the safety of their home.

I was alone, no dog for company, walking quietly through a broad-leaved wood late one summer’s evening. In that same ten-acre wood I’ve watched badger amble along well-worn tracks. I’ve seen roe deer and tiny muntjac deer so small that at first fleeting glimpse you couldn’t be sure what they were. On the edge of the wood pheasant and rabbits scuttle for cover. Wood pigeons come back to roost in droves and from time to time a barn owl floats silently by.

Now and then an adult fox slips from cover and just weeks after my first sighting of those cubs I saw four young foxes hunting for food in the open ground alongside the wood.

For a week they were there, same time, same place. By day that same wood seems empty except for scattered bird life, squirrels and the occasional rabbit. It dusk it comes alive. But you have to leave the dog at home, walk quietly, make some use of natural cover and wear clothing that blends with the colours around you. Choose those parts of the wood where tracks, droppings and used looking holes and excavations tell you that there is wildlife activity. Then a pleasant walk can occasionally be a memorable walk.

That’s why in summer it’s dusk for me.