The pond at Falmer is full to overflowing and there’s more rain in the forecast. I’m waiting to see how much of the No Fishing sign disappears. This is the current high point.

The threat of rain means overcast skies, and there was barely any light worth speaking of this morning when I arrived. The pond was quiet, the rats were hiding, but as I rounded the far end of the pond looking for small birds in the gloom I spotted something unexpected in the next field. The photos were shot at ISO 2500 which is a long way from ideal, and gives some idea of just how dark it was.

It’s not often I see foxes there, though they are around. It’s just that rural foxes are much more wary than the semi-urban ones that visit the garden. She stood and watched me for a few moments, before turning away and heading back across the open farmland.

At lunchtime things hadn’t changed much, and it was raining 🙁 Just one shot, a great spotted woodpecker on the churchyard tree, busy tapping away and sending shards of wood flying out.

With a bit of luck the weather will improve a little tomorrow. The forecast is encouraging, though I don’t expect too much. It will still be very wet underfoot but if I see another fox and a woodpecker, I won’t be complaining.

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

I’ve been meaning to do a proper update on Pretty, our resident young fox, for a while now and the lack of any decent daytime photography today (more rain) provides the perfect opportunity. Pretty has been carrying a leg wound for a week or more, and for several days was carrying her right hind leg rather than putting any weight on it. Yesterday she started walking more or less normally again, and that positive outcome continued this evening. You can see the wound in this first photo.

This next photo shows her in one of her favoured spots: sitting on the leading up into the garden.

What passes for a lawn in our garden (it more often resembles an unkempt mini-meadow, especially at this time of year) is situated at the top of the steps, which affords some good angles for photographing her from below.

Another sitting pose.

And away she goes to wherever it is she disappears to… sometimes just as far as the rear of the garden; other times away through the fences.

Camera note: all photos taken with the Canon 7D and EF 24-105 F4L IS USM lens.