BY KEN HARRISON
Brigg - 5.33am, Thursday,
11th December, 2014
It was drizzling
and dark, but approaching the lights at the junction of Ash Grove and Barnard
Ave, the lights were already on red.
From the corner of
my eye, I could see a largish cat-like creature alertly standing near the kerb
on the verge just outside the RC Church.
My first thoughts
were that the cat was going to dart across the the road in front of traffic -
but, apart from me, there was no traffic.
But is was no cat,
it was a fox - its tail proudly bushing out horizontally.
It was looking both
ways, seemingly experienced with the inherent dangers of the junction - then it
briskly trotted diagonally across the junction to Cary Lane's footpath adjacent
to the Tesco's car-park. Continuing, the fox then swiftly disappeared into the
shrubbery.
A grey-haired guy
standing on the opposite Ash Grove corner also witnessed the fox's early morning
antics.
He said that he had
seen the fox 3, or 4 times in recent weeks and sometimes was seen in the gardens
in the locality of Colton St., Redcombe Lane and Grammar School Road. The guy
thinks the fox may have a den on the river-bank.
It was now 5.37 -
no traffic had passed, the junction had been ghostly quiet, but I had been
waiting 4 minutes when the traffic lights turned to green.....
Has anyone else
seen our own Brigg urban fox?
As for the the
traffic lights that that appear to have a mind of their own - that's a different
story.
Next time, I'll ensure I take my camera with me in the anticipation that
the fox is a creature of habit.....and if the lights remain on inconvenience red
as they usually do in the early hours, then I will have time to edit a BBC
documentary on the adventures of Brigg's Mister Foxy-Loxy before they decide to
turn green.
.....it's not that I haven't seen a fox before....but it was the first time that I've seen a fox within the confines of Brigg.....It was about an hour before the Sun rose to offer some wintery light....and at that time of the morning, the fox appeared to be heading in the general direction of the Market Place.....Was it trotting back enroute to its den....or was it seeking a final morsel before retiring from its nocturnal sortie?
ReplyDeleteI'd have kept this to myself frankly. There's too many folk with dogs intent on wiping out what's left of our wildlife. Badgers, foxes, hares- you name it.Someone will hunt it.
ReplyDeleteI accept your view....but the fox should be fairly safe in the townscape of Brigg....marauding groups of men with dogs would be vastly more conspicuous than a fox strutting the streets and alleyways of Briggscape....
ReplyDeleteI accept your view....but the fox should be fairly safe in the townscape of Brigg....marauding groups of men with dogs would be vastly more conspicuous than a fox strutting the streets and alleyways of Briggscape....
ReplyDelete