Walk where I walk

Now I know most of my neighbours think I am a tad weird (it's something to do with the multi coloured beanie) but this morning I think a couple of them had the fact confirmed big style.
Overnight we had a fair smattering of snow,so before I let the animals free of their houses, I decided to check for fox footprints!
I started at the hole in the hedge near to where the pigs are housed, it is an area that the fat faced Welsh farmer indicated that foxes were entering and leaving, and there clearly marked in the snow were a set of footprints.....
I followed the footprints with the tenacity of Danial Day Lewis from The Last of the Mohichan's, up they went to the first coop. then they circled it, then off to another and so on, until every coop had been visited. I was so engrossed in my outdoor pursuits that I hadn't seen my neighbours from down the lane who were standing by the gate. The husband called over, "have you lost something?" he said........
"No" I replied importantly "I am just tracking game!!"
He shrugged his shoulders and laughed "fair enough!"
I didn't look much like a big game hunter...not with a cup of coffee in one hand and a camera in the other.
After review of the prints (back in the lab) I think the "spoor" is in fact that of a badger rather than the dreaded fox and the whole affair reminded me of the time that I went badger watching with my brother years ago.
My brother in law Ned, used to be a game keeper, so knew his onions when it came to wildlife. He took me ( and I was a real city boy back then) to some local woods to see badgers entering and leaving their setts, and was quick to instruct me into the "ways" of animal tracking.
"Walk where I walk" he ordered quietly as we entered the near pitch black wood and stifling a fit of the giggles, I tried to follow (on tip toes like a big fairy!)
Anyhow after a few minutes blundering around in the dark, we laid down in some grass to get a "lie of the land", and in the silence I could hear all manner of rustlings and slithering in the undergrowth. Ned seemed not to notice all this activity, but to me the noises were terrifying! (I had forgotten that we were in fact in rural Wales and not in the African bush)
After a few minutes my imagination was running riot and I remember creeping up to Ned to ask him what animal was stalking us....
"It's a rabbit!" he said with mild disgust.

At least for now I couldn't see any fox prints.....
Before I went in for breakfast, I snapped this photo of Jesus (the cockerel that was abandoned with me at Christmas)
He has been courting the three new Rhode Island Red pullets in their run.