I came across this flock of house martins (plus a few swallows) this morning on the way to work. Too good an opportunity to miss! They tend to flock together like this as they prepare for their return to winter in Africa. This doesn't bode well for the weather over the next few weeks if they are really about to set off on their travels.
House martin (right), young swallow (left)
Swallow
House martin
And as a sort of postscript to last night's entry where I mentioned the scrap between two young foxes. Well, they repeated the game in front of the trail cam later on 😉 Edit: see comments… I've revised my impression of what's going on in the video. It may be the vixen being aggressive with a cub (possibly not hers, hard to tell)
Camera note: all shots taken with the EF 400mm f/5.6L USM lens.
13 Comments
Birds of feather flock together 😀
Nice shots. I certainly hope they are like most weathermen and got it wrong!
Robin, the summer has all but disappeared unfortunately, so they may be right. 🙁
Thanks Antonietta! They are really having a go at each other in the video aren't they.
The photos are really beautiful and the video is extraordinary :yes:
Darko, thanks! It must happen every year, but it's the first time I recall seeing it.
Are'nt foxes in the video? :confused: 🙂
Very nice catch of the Foxy playfighting (hope it is anyways!) 😛 The Swallows might be heading back but hopefully it will be nicer in August.
We did have a nicer June though, but understandably people write it off if its not as hot during the time when most are off i guess.
When i was at Chichester Planetarium a couple of months back, the professor said that this might be due to the Sun having a long period of inactivity and no sunspots, we might get sunnier weather when the Sun gets active and sunspots return. – whether thats true or not remains to be seen! 😆
Wow, they certainly weren't pulling their punches! :knight:
I think autumn is coming 😉 The blackberries are starting to ripen up here!
Mark, thanks for the sun spot update. Today was much brighter, and Sunday looks ok too. The more I look at the video the less I'm convinced it was play. The second fox may be the vixen, in which case this was serious. Certainly looked pretty rough :yikes:
Adele, as I mentioned to Mark I'm not convinced this was entirely playful. Autumn? You're just waiting for the leaves to fall so you can see the birds in the trees 😉
great captures, especially the house martin close up – Im jealous of that one!
Neil, thanks! I've got to say it was one of the easier shots to get. There were a hundred or so of them settled on wires. I couldn't miss 😉