Predator

I was happy this morning when our peahen returned from incubating her eggs, fussing protectively around four tiny peachicks. She will have her work cut out - mortality is high as they cannot roost above ground level for many weeks. Even as I left on my bike to go into town, there was a buzzard circling above the field next to the house...

A few miles further on, I stopped to photograph this fox, which I thought was dead, but it was still breathing. A young dog fox, lying still, looking up at me. I stroked his beautiful fur and decided to lift him up off the roadside and onto the grass in a nearby field. His back had been broken, his hind legs dangled uselessly. I felt useless, too, leaving him there to die.

Ad I cycled off, another predator - a stoat - ran across the road. It's a vicious world out there... they all have to eat.. but no animal can compete with a human in a car, killing through sheer clumsiness and a taste for speed.