This evening we ate roasted chicken with suitable accompaniments. Two hours later, I stripped as much remaining chicken meat from the carcass as I could. Then I put the stripped carcass and all remaining pieces out on the lawn. This has been my habit for years now.
In winter months, when darkness falls early, I never get to see the disappearance of the leftovers but tonight with summer evenings returning, I looked out and saw a wary dog fox patrolling the lawn, sniffing here and looking there. This was less than five minutes after I had taken the roasting tin outside.
I am sure he was a little nervous in case he was about to become the victim of a cunning trap in which a fresh cooked chicken carcass might in fact be bait. But he had no need to worry. Quick as a flash, he gripped the chicken in his jaws and ran off into the shrubbery with it.
Urban foxes are so clever, so opportunistic and their sense of smell must be so supreme that it is hard for we mere humans to imagine. To survive in a city cannot be easy for any of the creatures so I am always glad to help out. Besides, my disposal practice means that tonight's carcass did not end up in our household waste bin - thence to landfill or the council's massive waste incinerator.
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Over in Newfoundland, the Skote Outdoors couple - Matty and Kelly Clarke are now back on their island with a healthy baby boy that they have named Sonny Ray Clark. All is well but in the run up to the birth many online visitors - myself included - were anxious about possible complications with a home birth. Maybe we'll never get to know fully what happened last week as 9.5 pound Sonny Ray emerged from the happy place where he had been hiding.
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And before I sign off, here are three more images from my pre-match walk in Hull late on Friday afternoon.
A lone cyclist is heading towards me on the elevated riverside walkway.
John died in October 2016. I do not know for sure but I suspect that he took his own life hereabouts.
On Hessle Road - the traditional home area of Hull's fishing trawler families but that's all part of history now. Any idea what "Hullizza" might be selling?
I was thinking they served pizza and I was correct. Their website says: "Pizza, Burger, Fast Food"...
ReplyDeleteWhat a genius guess Ellen! That's amazing!
DeleteStarving foxes will eat pizzas with chicken & pineapple ; no self-respecting
ReplyDeleteItalian would consider such an abomination edible. A weird British invention.
Hullizza would not be my choice for a real pizza with anchovies & olives.
Let's hope that Sonny Ray Clarke is blissfully asleep and will have a good
life in Newfoundland. Having loving parents is the best start.
John Marris may well have taken his own life. We'll never know.
LIFE AFTER SUICIDE (2015). YouTube. Wellbeing Library.
I watched this BBC film a few evenings ago and learned much.
Very occasionally I'm glad when a winter's day is over. A good night's
sleep restores me.
"Hullizza" do not serve intellectuals like you Mr Haggerty. There's a sign on the door: "No Dogs. No Travellers. No Intellectuals - By order of the management"
DeleteNon pedagogical, non scholastic. Such terms define me.
DeleteQuattro Stagioni or Caprese or Napoletana or Margherita or Bufalina :
The Pizza must be Italia. And the red wine too.
Ten years ago there was a coffee franchise in the Central Station in
Glasgow, selling itself as real Italia.
Two Italian women with their husbands stopped to have their Caffe.
*This is not Italia,* the ladies insisted. They were quite angry.
After they left the young waitress expressed her indignation.
*Ah went oan a week's training course tae dae this job,* she said.
I expressed my solidarity with her. There's no pleasing some folk.
That franchise is long gone ; I think it's now a Burger King.
Glad to know that big boy arrived safely and the see the proof. A lovely Mother's Day gift for the family.
ReplyDeleteWhat? We don't get to see your legs when putting out the scraps like we do Steve's?
I have manly legs with bulging muscles. It would be too much excitement for female visitors to this blog... and indeed some men!
DeleteKelly, I was thinking the same!
DeleteThere are many more critters running through our yards than we think.
ReplyDeleteI once saw a unicorn out there. Honest.
DeleteI'm a little surprised that you don't first make Chicken Stock from you carcass. I get great pleasure from feeding my Fox, even though she only has dry Dog Food. She has been here this morning, along with two Magpies who wanted a bit of the action.
ReplyDeleteYou are probably right - I should occasionally make chicken stock and then cast out the remains later on. I could make some fox soup with it.
DeleteGlad to see the sheep are well armored to protect from the fox.
ReplyDeleteThe fox thinks they are fake sheep but they are just standing very still.
DeleteI know that dogs shouldn't eat cooked chicken bones, and the same goes for foxes! Just looked it up to be sure......they can splinter and injure/kill the animal! Please check for yourself , and maybe just put some left over meat out for them in future....and yes, I am telling you off!!
ReplyDeleteDear Frances - When a fox famously raids a chicken coop does he only eat the meat? And how many live chickens have been killed by foxes? Thousands and thousands. I will stick with my habitual practice but I do appreciate being disciplined by an older lady in leather thigh boots with a bullwhip in her hand.
DeleteUmmm, YP: how many live chickens are already cooked?
DeleteI did wonder about your photo of the fox in the shrubbery* the other day. The presence of relatively tame wildlife is generally a sign that somebody is feeding them. How are you with pigeons?
We are not so keen on foxes in Australia as they are too smart and fierce for our dozy little marsupials. I guess we want to be the only species wreaking havoc on the environment. In Sydney, brush turkeys are bouncing back after a 1080 baiting campaign in the surrounding national parks greatly reduced the fox population.
*"Shrubbery" for me always brings to mind a certain film...
As marcellous has already pointed out.....foxes don't usually cook chickens before eating them.....I specifically said " cooked chicken bones" !! I shall be coming for you with the bullwhip !
DeleteI think live chicken bones are soft whereas cooked ones can splinter and damage the intestines. Hence they are not suitable for household pets and presumably foxes.
DeleteSays such a lot that last photo. Bravery in the face of badly built houses. They say the fox is brazen as well, but he has to eat, same as the rest of us.
ReplyDeleteI am glad that you also "read" that image in the same way as me Thelma.
Delete"Hullizza"? Umm ... fish and chips?
ReplyDeleteNo. Isle of Man kippers.
DeleteHappy foxes in your neighbourhood! 🦊
ReplyDeleteI am sure I am not the only one around here who likes to feed them.
DeleteLucky fox.
ReplyDeleteNot sure if you are interested but the Man in Seat 61 is currently in Egypt, travelling by train naturally.
When I read Hullizza my first thought was pizza. I have thought of putting chicken remains out for the crows, but always decided not to as it would also encourage more rats and possums I think. Well, maybe not more possums. And I haven't seen any rats in quite a while. I like your sheep.
ReplyDeleteI had to look up the Skote Outdoors couple as I hadn't heard of them before. I have been to all of the maritime provinces except Newfoundland. I don't think I would do well living so remotely.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad the Newfoundland baby arrived safely. 9.5 lbs! Holy moly!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad the baby was born healthy and hale, and glad that it wasn't a home birth, so far from medical help if needed. Mums and babies can still die.
ReplyDeleteThat is a lucky fox who visits your yard. We don't have foxes nearby but we do have compost bins which can even take bones.
It seems to be Fox Day, between you and Jablog with, well, different fox tales.
ReplyDeleteThank you for letting us know about the birth of healthy Sonny! I must admit that with all the goings-on in my life just recently, I have not checked their website again.
ReplyDeleteWho knows; the fox taking the chicken carcass from right under the nose of your sheep may be an offspring of good old Fred, whose picture moved from my mini hallway to the kitchen a few months ago.
I'm glad someone else feeds their foxes now and again. I was feeling the harsh judgmental eye of the blogosphere for doing so here. Just beware the rats!
ReplyDelete(For the record, I think Frances is right about cooked chicken bones, though. Maybe strip the meat and cartilage off the carcass and give them that? Raw chicken bones would be fine. Apparently it's the cooking that makes them splintery, or so I'm told.)
(Having said that, I know our urban foxes eat a heck of a lot of Nando's, so it probably won't do them any harm.)
ReplyDelete