Fox and wildfowl

[snake]

It has been really miserable weather for the last couple of days, heavy rain low cloud and very dull. With all the recent rain large parts of the marsh are now under water which is great for the wildfowl.
This morning I parked up and sat in the truck for a while to watch the ducks and geese dropping into the freshwater splashes.
Plenty of activity including a Fox that wandered around amongst them.
I was surprised to see that they all took very little notice of him until he was almost upon them. He walked within a few feet of the Godwits who just stood there making no attempt to get out of his way also he didn't try to get any of them.
Strange!!

[Dogghound]

There are a couple of foxes near me resident in a wetland area with large numbers of wildfowl and waders. I often see them hunting and they also tend to avoid them in favour of pheasants. It makes sense that a pheasant is slower and less alert than a wader or duck thus an easier target and one which expends less energy hunting, so maybe this is what you have here.

[rossy]

one of the things you hear a lot of is foxes hunt and come out at night. when darkness falls the crafty fox knows the birds are easier to target then. how many times have chickens been got at . nearly always at night . maybe thats one of the reasons snake. rossy.

[thebeard]

the 'delta' area of attenborough nature reserve has been frozen over this week and some foxes have been causing mayhem amongst the wildfowl, there are usually a lot of bitterns around there, but they have been forced to other areas of the reserve due to the danger posed by these foxes. seems a shame as they are common in the area due to a woman who owns a cafe nearby who feeds them scraps

[danthekeeper]

I see this quite regularly when feeding a fox will walk through the feed ride with pheasants all round him yet they take no notice I have also watched fox cubs playing at the edge of a field surrounded by feeding rabbits.
I have spoken to many keepers on this subject and we all came to the same conclusion that an animal knows when a fox/human is a threat kind of a 6th sense almost if they know of your intentions.