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Sunny Day at Falmer Pond

More sunshine today, though I didn’t have long to enjoy it. Still, it was a pleasure not to be dodging rain and there were some nice images among the few photos I had time to take.

In this first one a moorhen investigates the No Fishing sign.

Moorhen and No Fishing sign

And here’s a simple portrait shot of one of its kin, on the glassy still water. Not only no rain, but no wind. 🙂

Moorhen on still pond

The gulls were largely absent, so it was relatively quiet as well; until some noisy ducks flew in over the village.

Trio of ducks flying past village cottage

Duck landing in pond

It took some searching out, but I eventually also found one of the local rats. It had eluded me at first as it was sitting several feet above the water, resting in the fine branches of an overhanging tree.

Rat in tree above Falmer Pond

Rat in tree above Falmer Pond

Rat in tree above Falmer Pond

Back home, Pretty’s mange treatment seems to be having some effect. She’s still scratching at her coat, but much less intensely than before. She is probably now the most consistent of all the fox visitors we’ve had in about 9 years of watching them. There’s barely been a week when she hasn’t appeared, and generally she shows up several times a day.

Fox scratching

Fox not scratching

Camera note: all daytime photos taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens. The fox photos are with the EF 100mm f/2.8L macro IS USM lens.

Posted in Foxes, mange, rats, water birds Tagged , , , , , |

Opposite the Amex Stadium

I was back out in the fields today looking for buzzards. Unsuccessfully as it happens, but the woods were coming into their own with the morning sunshine, and the sheep were grazing in the shadow of the Amex Stadium (American Express Community Stadium to give it its full name).

Sheep grazing with Amex Stadium in background.

The wood is full of trees. Nothing unusual there, even though a good number are prone. These are both long-time fallers, but they add some character and colour to the woodland floor.

Fallen trees in woodland

Fallen trees in woodland

The sheep had obviously had a hard morning grazing. This one was taking a nap when I returned at lunchtime.

Sheep sleeping in field

A couple of others were hanging out at the bar 😉

Sheep in field

So the weather holds up (more or less) for another day. Tomorrow looks good too. This little blue tit hopes it stays that way for a little longer.

Blue tit

Camera note: all photos taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.

Posted in Amex Community Stadium, Farming, Landscape, Sheep Tagged , , |

Buzzards at Falmer and Treating Pretty

Plenty more rain today. I took to the local woods at lunchtime in the hope of catching sight of a buzzard. I sheltered under the trees for a while, but without any luck. As the drizzle eased a little I headed to the neighbouring field, and saw this.

buzzard

While I was watching the intensity of the rain increased, but things were only just starting to get interesting. The buzzard flew across to some fence posts and I tracked it with the camera. There was a second buzzard, engaging in a mild dispute with a crow.

buzzards and crow

The crow won that encounter, but the second buzzard was less easily put off and settled down adjacent to the corvid.

Common buzzard

The rain got heavier. I waited. The buzzard gave in first and headed to the woods for some shelter.

buzzard in flight

buzzard in flight

buzzard in woodland

I lost track of it after that, and I too needed to find some shelter as the rain intensified. Still, a really nice local encounter and well worth the soaking.

Meanwhile I’ve been becoming more concerned about Pretty. She’s been scratching a lot (foxes do, of course), but some of the smaller breaks in her coat have become larger and I do suspect she may be suffering from early stages of mange. Apart from that she seems well enough, and tonight we’ve started her on a course of treatment. She’ll receive four weekly treatments, which should do the trick. Here she is checking out the first dose.

Fox being treated for mange

I’ll keep you updated on her progress.

As a final note I’ve disabled the auto-email notifications from the site for the time-being as one of the accounts used here seems to have been spoofed as a spam address. I’ll attempt to send notifications manually, but if you have subscribed do check your spam trap. If you are not already subscribed you can do so via the contact form linked in the header. See also the note in the side bar.

Camera note: all buzzard photos taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens. the fox being treated for mange taken with the EF 100mm f/2.8L macro IS USM.

Posted in Bird of Prey, Foxes, mange Tagged , , |