Nature Watch, with RON GFREETHY. . .

SEPTEMBER and October are the perfect months for watching foxes. The cubs are now becoming adolescents and are learning to become independent.

This is the time when they are at their most vulnerable and many become road casualties.

As the nights become longer, cars use their headlights and these dazzle not only foxes but also hares, rabbits, hedgehogs and badgers.

When we see an animal dead we usually feel sorry but for many people the poor old fox seems to be the exception.

There is no doubt that the fox is a menace to farmers but are some foxes worse than others?

It would seem that they are. Some kill lambs and chickens but modern research seems to suggest that many foxes feed on rabbits, voles and mice and some supplement their diet by eating fungi and fruit including at this time of the year on blackberries.

I once talked to a farmer who told me that he had a fox in his area for two years and had no intention of shooting it. "This is a good fox," he said, "it keeps the rabbits down and never touches livestock. When he dies I might get a bad fox and if this happens I'd keep shooting until I get another good one."

Foxes these days are living more in towns. Why should this be? I think it is because we are expanding our towns which are eating away our countryside and leaving less natural habitat for the fox.

Also they have learned to eat food left in dustbins or even thrown away by people who have no idea of how to pick up litter and throw on the floor any uneaten items of "fast food."

Once the fox learns its own lesson of adolescent it is able to live anywhere because it is a night creature, active when most of us are asleep.

Rowan's a true autumn glory

EVERYBODY knows the beauty of the bright red berries of the rowan tree in the autumn, but many fail to recognise the equally attractive white blossom which is at its best in the early summer. Mountain ash is so-called because of the superficial resemblance of its leaves to those of the common ash. However, as the name Sorbus indicates the rowan is a member of the apple family. Its scientific name is Sorbus aucuparia. Aucepts is the Latin name for a bird catcher and dates from the days before supermarkets and all food had to be hunted or trapped.

Crushed rowan berries were once mixed with the sap from birch trees to produce sticky lime. This was spread on branches. When small birds landed they were caught and killed for the pot. Rowan was valuable because both the white blossom and the red berries were brewed into a potent wine.