I met a fox while on my walk this morning. It was a quiet, still, misty dawn. I think the fox was young, it seemed surprised to see a human.

It was an exquisitely beautiful little animal.

Before darting into the bushes, it stopped to examine me more closely. Not sure whether it was thinking, “So that’s what they look like up close.” Or “Would you look at the state of that!”

This was in a “Recreational Open Space” created by our local council alongside a small river. The foxes’ main task is to police up the area, removing discarded pizza and fast-food debris. This apparently includes detailed inspection of all waste bins, removal and unwrapping food packages and destruction of the contents. This task is shared with the local cats, magpies, and crows.

Next time you see a bin surrounded by wrapping and bags, it is probably not careless humanity, but our friendly scavengers doing their bit to recycle.