Woodpigeon and Berries

November 1, 2013 by Words | Comments Off

It’s been very wet today, but birds have to eat whatever the weather.

The garden here is home to a number of woodpigeons. They live in the trees just beyond the perimeter but spend a good deal of time looking for morsels of food in the garden. Despite the constant drizzle, this one was doing rather well, once it had managed to gain its balance on the spindly shrub.

Woodpigeon eating berries

Woodpigeon eating berries

Pretty was hanging around at the same time, so I have managed to get my fox of the day photo.

fox

On other fronts, it was announced today that the My Opera blogging community will be closing in March 2014. This isn’t a great surprise to me, and confirms the suspicions I had when I moved my blog over to my own space a few months ago. What I didn’t do was transfer the embedded images, a vast number of which are still linked back to the Opera servers. I’m now in the process of migrating them over here. Thankfully there’s a handy little plugin called ‘Import External Images’ which is taking most of the pain out of the process but I still have to update each post individually (and with over 2000 that’s not a trivial task).

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

Posted in Behaviour, Birds, Foxes

Rats High and Low

October 31, 2013 by Words | Comments Off

I think I’ve previously mentioned that the recent rains have filled Falmer Pond to its banks, creating new challenges for the population of rats that I’ve been watching these past few months. To be exact, there is still a narrow beach along parts of the pond, though these are receding quickly with each passing day. It was here that I spotted my first rat of the day, peering out of a narrow run.

rat

Having seen one rat, I kept my eyes open for more. I scouted around the usual haunts (those remnants of beach), and then cut through the small wood on the far side of the pond. To my surprise (because the rats really do tend to hug the pond fringes) a rat scurried away through the undergrowth. I kept sight of it, and then watched as it emerged from the leaf cover and proceeded to climb up into the bough of a tree. There were too many branches and foliage to catch the climb, but it came to rest about 7 feet above ground level. That was my chance.

rat in tree

rat in tree

rat in tree

rat in tree

The tree rat – of course – is the ‘high’ of the title. You may think I’ve already shown the low in the first image. Possibly, but this next rat managed to get even lower. It was further around the pond. The water was more or less lapping the bank and a couple of rats were scurrying around the exposed tree roots as a means of navigating their way along the pond edge. They were difficult to photograph because of the tight angles, but I was doing my best when some movement a few feet away grabbed my eye. Another rat had found a better way of getting around. It was swimming.

rat swimming

And as I lined up that shot and was tightening the focus, it dived underneath.

rat diving under water

I lost track of its movement under the water, but imagine it emerged just a few yards further along the bank where more trees provide plenty of cover. It seems that a full pond is not going to stop the rats for a while yet.

(p.s. I was once again asked if I’d seen the local water voles! People really don’t want to admit to themselves that they’re fascinated by rats.)

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

Posted in Behaviour, rats, Wildlife Tagged , , |

Birds and Butterflies

October 30, 2013 by Words | Comments Off

The storm has passed and we are back with fine autumnal weather. Cool, but the skies are clear. Outside tonight I can see Jupiter shining brightly and Orion rising. Much earlier today the skies were blue, perfectly setting off the pure white of a little egret.

Little egret

Little egret

Little egret

The Canada geese were also enjoying the calm.

Canada geese

Canada geese

Canada geese

At lunchtime I stepped out on to the start of the South Downs Way. Here the smaller birds dominate. There was a lone (and very late) swallow overhead, and a colourful jay criss-crossing between the trees.

Jay

If the swallow (the photo is not worth posting) was a late visitor, I was equally surprised to see numerous butterflies including several red admirals and this beautiful clouded yellow.

Clouded yellow butterfly

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

Posted in Birds, Butterfly, Insects, water birds Tagged , , , |