![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/45c9fa35270fec49b78bac983a7b7689.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\nA wildlife photographer has captured a fox swimming amongst wildfowl in East Yorkshire.<\/p>\n
The fox is a regular swimmer at RSPB Blacktoft Sands, where she has chosen to rear her young in a den on an island in the tidal reedbed.<\/p>\n
Pete Short, the reserve’s manager, said the ducks and geese were relaxed around her in the water because they know she is “not in a position to attack them”.<\/p>\n
The reserve said it was the second year that the fox has chosen to rear her young on the island and wildlife photographer Brian Needham caught her dip on camera.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The nature reserve has the largest tidal reedbed in England [Brian Needham]<\/p>\n
The reserve is situated on the south bank of the River Ouse where the waterway widens into the Humber Estuary.<\/p>\n
It has the largest tidal reedbed in England and wildfowl and waders feed and nest in the six shallow lagoons, marshland and mudflats.<\/p>\n
It is thought the fox chose to create a den on one of the the islands there because it gives her cubs greater security.<\/p>\n
![\"Pete](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/4d54ddad5d3cfc3626acb831eac0d60c.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Pete Short said the fox is not in the position to attack the birds when in water [Brian Needham]<\/p>\n
Short explained that foxes are reluctant swimmers but are “quite adept” when they take to the water.<\/p>\n
Although the fox would attack the wildfowl on land, they are unable to do so once in the water.<\/p>\n
“They can’t pounce because their legs that are in water,” he said.<\/p>\n
“So although it might be food very near to them and they might be drooling, they actually can’t pounce on to them.”<\/p>\n
Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds<\/a>, watch the latest episode of Look North<\/a>.<\/p>\n Download the BBC News app from the App Store<\/a> for iPhone and iPad or Google Play<\/a> for Android devices<\/p>\n More on this storyRelated internet links<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A wildlife photographer has captured a fox swimming amongst wildfowl in East Yorkshire. The fox is a regular…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":525979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,261677,261678,128,338,25949],"class_list":["post-525978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-brian-needham","tag-rspb-blacktoft-sands","tag-science","tag-wildlife","tag-wildlife-photographer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/525979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}