Docklands Fox

Spent much of the afternoon with Fiachra recording sounds in Dublin Port. Saturdays can be quite dreamy in the docklands, even in areas such as Alexandra Basin/dock where there was container-stacking going on and forklift activity in a nearby warehouse. The area is so generous that one can easily imagine oneself alone, as I did searching for sounds (hollow wind-driven warehouse flapping and clankings, distant clunks of containers and groaning cranes...) walking along a road between warehouses, watching the breeze raising hackles in broad puddles. Weather was going through a furious gamut of changes, from blustery rain and sleet to lakelike calms in which shadows suddenly solidified: a tuft of grass crisply scissoring against a stone wall, a furious blurred mottling of pigeons.

The fox emerged out of the corner of my eye: a scruffy fellow, oil-slicked and skinny, but probably healthy enough. I've always wanted to catch a fox on film so I was excited. The fox didn't stay in view for very long but didn't dart off either. A man on the deck of a cargo ship nearby helped me, waving his hi-vis arm towards where he'd seen it slip, in between the parked artics. I spent some time following it, took a few still-shots (but none as clear as this screenshot from video. Later, on our way back to the car, we heard that grinding too-human screech-scream: a vixen presumably. And sure enough there were two foxes now, slinking off between the lorries.