The same but different....

I have posted a fair number of fox photos in the past, but most of them were of the family that hung out on the garage roofs behind my block of flats. This specimen, who appears to have a damaged right eye, was chilling in the sunshine at Beddington Farmlands nature reserve.

Today was my first visit to the reserve, and sadly I have to say I came away feeling a little short changed. Back in the distant days of my youth, Beddington was the site of an extensive sewage works. After that closed down there was a period when gravel pits were dug in the area, which were then licenced for use for landfill on the understanding that the waste company would transform the whole thing into a nature reserve when their time was up. Somewhere along the line permission was also granted for a waste incinerator to be built. It probably won't surprise you to hear that the waste company and the incinerator people have dragged their heels over fulfilling this last part of the bargain, and the (much delayed) date for the opening of the reserve to the public came and went at the end of 2023 without any progress. From the limited views on offer it looks like being a great place for wildlife when it finally does open, I only hope that that happens in my lifetime!