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Help: Are these fox burrows (?) a problem for my trees?

chelsey.miller.brown99017chelsey.miller.brown99017 Posts: 3
in Wildlife gardening
Hi everyone - I am totally clueless and really hope someone can offer a little advice.
We have a lovely garden in South Birmingham - we live on a hill and the previous owners had the garden tiered. The final 'tier' is just the steep incline up - and I think where a lot of the earth that was removed to level the others has been dumped as it's quite a large mound shape. At the top of this we have 6 conifer type trees that we know from neighbours were only planted about 15 years ago (I'd assumed longer as they were so tall!). We recently had these cut down from about 60ft to about 40ft as a few large branches came down the year before and narrowly missed the main road we back on to.
We know we have foxes in the area and that frequent the garden (previous owners used to feed them) and over the last few months we've noticed more digging at the back of the garden on this mound. Likely fox burrows but pictures included in case anyone is able to confirm or say otherwise! A neighbour has said he's seen rats at the back of the gardens - but I don't think they are responsible for these huge holes! 
These are 2 rather large 'holes' but I can't see any actual opening where anything could conceal itself or get further underground. Haven't gone and moved anything yet to unobscure the view as I don't want to needlessly disturb anything that could cause distress to anything living/nesting there.
Really, I am just worries about any danger this could cause to the trees as the digging is right under them and near roots. With this loosening and moving of the earth, could this affect the stability of the trees and make them dangerous (again!)? If this is an issue - what are my next steps?
Sorry to ramble on - and thanks in advance for any help or guidance anyone can offer. have a great day :) 

Posts

  • a1154a1154 Posts: 1,108
    Your next steps are to appreciate having wildlife, but don’t feed foxes.  
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    Try not to worry too much @chelsey.miller.brown99017. It's unlikely to cause a problem - the foxes themselves are more of a problem, and yes- don't feed them  :)

    Are the trees a leylandii hedge by any chance? Judging by your description, it sounds likely. I'd get them cut much further back if possible. They may cause even  more problems in future, as they impact heavily on the surrounding areas in all sorts of ways. 
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • chelsey.miller.brown99017chelsey.miller.brown99017 Posts: 3
    Thank you all so much :) I had hoped/thought it would be ok, but one of the guys we had out to quote for cutting the trees back had commented that they would be dangerous if animals were digging there.

    Relieved I can just enjoy my fox friends! We've had ALOT of noise at night from them the last few weeks - pretty sure there are now some baby foxes in the mix too :)

  • WaterbutWaterbut Posts: 344
    We have a problem with a fox trying to get into our cat flap. After a lot of searching on the internet there was one extreme cure. If you have a male in your family tell them to go out where you think they are coming in and tell them to spend a penny when it’s dark so neighbours do not see. Tried it on our patio and it seems to work so far.
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    If you're a bit shy, you could always do it in a bucket first😉
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • RubytooRubytoo Posts: 1,630
    chelsey.miller.brown99017 said:
     I had hoped/thought it would be ok, but one of the guys we had out to quote for cutting the trees back had commented that they would be dangerous if animals were digging there.


    I am not being rude about your choice of quoters for the job, some are not really qualified to do much more than talk a load of, pony poop.
    Unless it is beavers and not foxes :D

    The previous owners may have chosen ( as Fairygirl surmised) Leylandii as they do make a good sound barrier fast if you have a busy road behind.
    Can't blame folks.

    But maybe later if you stay there plant one or two better more easily managed things like Yew which grow slowly, but are great for cutting back into and regrowing if they get too big. 

    We put a couple of small ones in between ours a few years ago, and have just had the L's removed recently.

    Look into something to replace them as you have a mound of spoil up there I wonder if they also thought that would help with the traffic noise.

  • chelsey.miller.brown99017chelsey.miller.brown99017 Posts: 3
    Yes @Rubytoo - getting decent/qualified trades people for various things has been a nightmare across the board. Thankfully we know someone through a friend who can do most of our internal bits and bobs, but we had quite a few people around to quote on the trees as we just couldn't gauge who was talking nonsense. Though one guy tried telling me they are super dangerous as they were as they were all cracked at the top (?! they weren't - I'm clueless, not visually impaired) and he really should get them down today - he'd even knock £500 off for me ...! He thankfully outed himself as not worth it. 

    Thanks for the Yew tip - I'll have a look into it :)
  • Slow-wormSlow-worm Posts: 1,630
    @chelsey.miller.brown99017 if you take photos of any future fox cubs, I'd love to see them posted on here! 😊
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