With all the wonderful weather and the outbreak of dragonflies (to say nothing of pigeon antics), I've neglected to report on the foxes. Well needless to say, they are still showing up. The old dog fox is still the most regular of them. This was taken in the early hours of Sunday night/Monday morning.
The nicked-ear vixen has only been sighted briefly. She seems to emerge from the rear of the garden so may be somewhere fairly local, but she's clearly not remotely in charge of the territory. The bold vixen on the other hand does hang around when she shows up, and she tends to come and go via the front of the garden. Here she is from tonight looking about as cute as can be. 
And as for the dragonflies, well I had another excellent day with them. The numbers are still some way from the height of the season, but as well as the garden damsels, I saw my first ever hairy dragonfly (honestly, that's its name), and my first sighting of the season of the broad-bodied chasers.
Hairy dragonfly
Broad-bodied chaser
Large red damselfly
One other piece of news to report. I've been pointed in the direction of a nesting herring gull, with a perfect (but safely distant) view of the nest. I should be able to watch as the young emerge and follow their development. Here's a shot from today.
Camera note: The old dog fox was photographed with the EF 24-105 F4L IS USM + Kenko Teleplus 1.4x Pro 300 DG teleconverter; the vixen was the same lens but no teleconverter. The hairy dragonfly and broad-bodied chaser were taken with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens (I added an extension tube for the chaser); the damsel was taken with the Sigma 105mm F2.8 EX DG macro + full set of extension tubes and ring-flash; and the gulls were captured with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS. Phew!
cakkleberrylane
13 May 2008WOW!!! Great photos. I love the red damselfly – that is quite different than the ones we have here.
Words
13 May 2008Lois, thanks! The photo of the damselfly may be slightly deceptive as I was very close indeed for that one. In 'real life' they are slender little things and it's almost impossible to see the detail.
SittingFox
13 May 2008That vixen certainly does look very pretty! She's posing beautifully :queen: Nice dragonflies.
It'll be interesting to see how the herring gull family develops over the next few weeks!
Words
13 May 2008Adele, for once I knew that I had her in a good pose. Nice when they do that 😉 The dragonflies are great to watch, but the chasers were spending most of the time on the wing and I need to be set up a bit better for those. I should get some good shots of the gulls. It's better early when the sun is behind me.
Ukwildlife
13 May 2008You photographed a HAIRY DRAGONFLY!!!!! YOU BA…….. :p
Seriously though nice photos 🙂
FrogBoots
13 May 2008Wonderful shots! I too look forward to seeing the gulls' brood over the next few weeks. 🙂
Cynthia23
13 May 2008🙂 Ah, the Herring Gull Family … can't wait! 🙂
gdare
13 May 2008I can see that this gull has a mark on his left leg 🙂
Flying Red Fox Blog
13 May 2008Beautiful pics 😀 the weather is so hot and sunny that i have been enjoying it so much that i keep forgetting to update my blog lol 😛
zetorres
13 May 2008Fantastic wild life in England! :hat:
FrogBoots
13 May 2008Perhaps a home detention ankle bracelet placed their by his busy mate! 😆
Words
13 May 2008FB… LOL, tagged for life!
Words
13 May 2008Mark, yes the weather's been great lately. Hope you are getting plenty of time to be out enjoying it.
Words
13 May 2008Cynthia, I'm not sure when the brood is due, but with any luck I'll be there from day 1.
Words
13 May 2008Thanks ZT. I never realized how much variety we had until I started photographing the local wildlife. I'm constantly amazed by what I see and learn.
Words
13 May 2008Darko, most of the gulls there are ringed for monitoring and research purposes. Almost certainly the gull in the nest is ringed as well. It means they can be tracked over the years (they can live to be about 40 years old).
Words
13 May 2008Thanks FB. I'll try to take pictures most days and see what transpires. So far they are all identical. A gull sitting on a nest, sleeping!
zetorres
13 May 2008Indded, today I had the same opinion, took photos of wild flowers…please take a look of new group! 🙂
gdare
14 May 2008Yes I know about marking the birds, but everyone? :eyes: Do you know how many gulls you have in area? Are they endangered?
zetorres
14 May 2008Thanks, Words. 😉 if you want join us with yor wild life…it will be great! :):)
Words
14 May 2008Darko, I think they mark nearly all of them on this site. I'm not sure how many there are, but they are not endangered. It's just science 🙂
Words
14 May 2008ZT, good group :up: And very nice photos!