November
The males’ peak dispersal period is in November and December so there should be signs of competition and defence between adults. It didn’t turn out that way in my back garden though; Fiona and her friend seem to be content to play with each other with no sense of urgency at all. I think this suggests that they are not a
December
The dominant male and female should be defending their territory against visitors and making more noise as the mating season approaches. There have only been a handful of nights when we heard any noise and what we did hear was more like social chatter than anything aggressive. The pair of them are still to be seen outside though every night.
January
There is very little activity in January as everyone beds down through the cold weather.
Every evening Fiona appears at the bottom of the garden waiting for her food. She has a bowl with an egg and some dog chews in. She takes out each of the dog chewy sticks and takes them behind the shed to eat (or perhaps keep) and then she can have the egg last. When she has eaten the egg she takes the shell away – perhaps for someone else ?
There have been a few nights when some fox barking has been heard and that was mostly in the early evenings. Here is Fiona showing how it is done (you might need to turn the volume up).
So – apparently it takes 52 days for the vixen to produce her litter which means that somewhere around March 9th will be when her cubs are born.
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