After a very quiet weekend the weather has improved slightly. It's still damp, but clearing and there were even glimpses of blue above. For once though I kept the camera pointed low. These are the pick of the shots from the day.
Squirrel
Pheasant
Robin
I also spent some time out in the garden this evening. The moon was full, and casting a beautiful (but impossible to photograph) halo. The garden spiders were active, as you'd expect at this time of year. 
And at the rear of the garden one of the badgers came out to graze.
Camera note: daylight shots taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens. Night shots taken with the EF 100mm f/2.8L macro IS USM lens.
derWandersmann
30 Oct 2012Nice ones, Words …
The ringneck is a classic shot, and I love your European robins. Maybe we could do a swap: You'd get a bunch of our American goldfinches in trade for some of your robins. Maybe some of our scarlet tanagers for your coniferous forests, too.
Do you have that spider pic upside-down, or is she performing the spider version of the Indian rope trick?
Mr Badger seems happy.
innitlike
30 Oct 2012Damn good pics. That badger is a real catch! They're such shy animals. (10/10) 😮 :cheers:
serola
31 Oct 2012Very nice selection indeed :up: That picture of Robin is just perfect :wizard:
SittingFox
31 Oct 2012Rather plump-looking spider! :bug:
gdare
1 Nov 2012Nice pheasant. I haven't seen them for a while!!!
Words
2 Nov 2012dW, thanks. The spider was abseiling down so the shot is the right way up. (As is our moon 😉 ). The pheasants are quite common around here, though scarcely native. Maybe we could trade the pheasants for an eagle or two.
Words
2 Nov 2012Sami, thanks. I was pleased with the robin, partially backlit and a very well designed perch.
Words
2 Nov 2012Darko, I quite often see them in the distance, but it was nice to get reasonably close. This one just wandered off into a little wood.
Words
2 Nov 2012innitlike, the badgers are very shy but such beautiful creatures.
Words
2 Nov 2012Adele, she is. Which reminds me… we've had hoards of spiderlings appear indoors in the past week. :bug:
derWandersmann
3 Nov 2012Pheasants are imports here, too. Hunters, I fancy … at any rate, that who is interested in them now.
Words
3 Nov 2012dW, well actually our government ministers are interested in them. They proposed (and then withdrew under a torrent of protest) a plan to disturb buzzard nests in order to 'protect' game birds.
derWandersmann
4 Nov 2012"Against stupidity, the gods themselves contend in vain."
——Friedrich Schiller
Words
5 Nov 2012:up:
ICU109
8 Nov 2012badger in fairyland, that's what the surroundings look like to me. We here in Michigan have black squirrels too, came over in the same carpool I guess as the Canadian Geese. When I lived in Indiana, never saw a black squirrel, not till moved here to Port Huron in 76 did I see one. And of course, our American Robin so different from the cute little one up here. But the song is so plaintive to listen to at dust or dawn of a summer day! Always loved it!
Words
9 Nov 2012Kathy, it's funny how the names of animals travel and apply to quite different looking species. I've never seen a black squirrel, and I can't remember if I've ever seen a native red squirrel in the wild. All we have in the south of England are the greys.
Badger do have something quite magical about them. :wizard:
derWandersmann
10 Nov 2012Blacks are a melanistic phase of greys, Words … and where they are present, there are usually lots of very weird black/grey variants around.
If memory serves, I've seen blacks in and around Battle Creek, Michigan, and Oconomowoc, Wisconsin.
Words
10 Nov 2012dW, I assumed as much, but clearly the gene pool has made them more populous in some areas. We get rare reports; similarly with white 'greys'.
derWandersmann
11 Nov 2012As I recall, it's a combination of two relatively rare recessives.