My three trail cameras continue to provide entertainment and insight into the lives of pademelons, wallabies, goannas and even snakes on my property. And occasionally the neighbours’ invading sheep and the odd transient dox and fox.
The fox has been a regular feature since I set up the cameras four months ago. First, it came with its mother, but now appears to be on its own. Foxes may have been here for years but we never knew until we saw the evidence with our own eyes.
One video caught a mother pademelon seeing off the fox, which cringed away, so maybe it’s leaving the pademelons alone. I haven’t seen our bandicoots for years so I fear they may have been taken by this fox or previous ones. There doesn’t seem to be a lessening of pademelon numbers and they are mating (caught on video!) and producing youngsters as usual.
The satin bowerbird’s bower continues to be maintained by him, and a young male bowerbird has taken to visiting and practising arranging the blue bits and even doing practice dances.
The crinum lilies which used to surround the bower have been munched to death by caterpillars so there’s now a clear spot around the bower. Whipbirds, wonga pigeons and even pademelons are visiting the spot but they don’t seem to put off the male bowerbird. I have a video of him staring at a wonga, and one of him with a pademelon.
The fox has also been making the odd appearance around the bower, I guess attracted by the smell of pademelons. But I was astonished by two videos in sequence of the fox – she (I’m guessing a she by her behavoir later in the sequence) went into the bower, rolled in it a few times, then peed and moved off.
I’m not able to put up the video of the fox but here are a few stills.
The fox enters the bower
Rolling inside the bower
Making her mark
But that hasn’t put off the male bowerbird – a couple of days later there are videos of him adding sticks to the bower, rearranging the blue plastic bits and even having a visit by a female bowerbird and displaying to her.
Male satin bowerbird entertaining a lady
I would never have guessed that this sort of thing happened. Hooray for trail cams!
A-roving I will go 
Yes, I know there are two spelling errors here (dox = dog and behavoir = behaviour) but when I tried to fix them, WordPress trashed my past and Andrew spent 30 minutes restoring it. I ain’t touching it now!
HI joy! Thanks for your detailed descriptions. I can almost imagine what you have seen first hand, from what you have described. Yes, the foxes are chomping into any little critters that do not have defences: eg spikes as in echidnas, claws, as in some marsupials, a good set of teeth, and a strong fight reflex. But in our back yard (we live in a small block of units with a clothesline yard), we have found evidence of the Powerful Owl. We live on the northern beaches of Sydney. A common story I hear from neighbours, and during my shift at North Head is that they find a Powerful Owl sitting on their balcony rail, because it offers these magnificent birds a good vantage point. Powerful Owls seem to be enjoying an easy picking from bandicoots, possums, rabbits and anything that can’t get away in time from this amazing predator. I have come across evidence: usually it is bits of fur – which suggests the possum/bandicoot/rabbit got away from the razor-like talons, or didn’t, leaving intestines, and organs, after a kill. It is my understanding that foxes don’t leave their dinner lying around, but hide it in a cryptic spot that they can come back to.
That’s so great that you have a Powerful Owl! I’ve heard Sooty Owls here but not seen one. I’m learning to live with the fox as I can’t do much about it. It was really acting like a cat with catnip!
Interesting behaviour, both fox and birds.
I’m in suburbia, close to a National park, and there are occasional fox sightings in the area.
Foxes are all over Australia, aren’t they? They are pretty animals but destructive of wildlife as you know. A plus is that they apparently do keep feral cat numbers down.