Foxes on Hilbre Island

Photo: Hilbre Archive

The first fox recorded on Hilbre was given to the then keeper, Lewis Jones, as a pet by a Canadian sea captain of his acquaintance at the end of the 19th century. The fox lived in a dog kennel in Mr Jones’s garden.

The next record was of a wild fox that arrived on the island at a late stage of the incoming tide in 1922. Mr Jones was still the keeper, although he did retire in 1923, and he and Mr J.Thompson, who also lived on the island, were very surprised to see the animal, as records of foxes anywhere in the north Wirral were unusual before the Second World War.

Mr Thompson produced a pistol and fired several shots at the creature before it took to the sea at the south end of the island. Jones and Thompson got into a dinghy and continued to pursue the fox and finally killed it with a shot near the Middle Eye.

It is no longer appropriate to be armed with a pistol on Hilbre but the north Wirral’s fox population has increased enormously and foxes have bred on Hilbre for the past two summers.

This second picture shows a young fox investigating the bird observatory building on the island during the summer of 2015. 

Photo from the Hilbre archive maintained by Barry Barnacal

Hilbre has the status of a local nature reserve and a reputation as a bird sanctuary. However the arrival of the foxes has had consequences for the Hilbre birds. 

The Dee estuary is a major breeding area for Shelduck and up to 2014 Hilbre had a thriving, breeding population of these birds. Once the foxes took up residence the Shelduck left. They breed in holes in the ground so are sitting ducks, well they are, for the foxes. The other major ground nesting birds on Hilbre, Meadow Pipits, have also shown a huge decline in breeding productivity but at least there are some left. So the summer birds are a worry but Hilbre and the Dee estuary are important on a world scale for wintering waders. Turnstone numbers have reduced significantly last winter and this winter. Turnstone used to turn up on Hilbre at the end of August and during September, moult whilst roosting on the north end of the island and then move on from the island to spend the winter somewhere else. This did not happen this year. The probable explanation is that Turnstone with a reduced flight ability due to moult would be a relatively easy target for a nocturnal predator, the foxes, consequently they did not use the island. The foxes are creating problems for the birds on Hilbre throughout the year. 

The question is, “Should we do anything about it?”

In 1922 Lewis Jones and his friend had no doubt that foxes should be killed. If we want to preserve the island for the birds then the foxes have to go!!!

Photo: John Elliott

This last picture shows part of the breeding colony of Shelduck before the foxes arrived.

John Elliott