Category Archives: Birds

Peregrine Falcon

Just one photo today… taken in the garden. This beautiful peregrine cleared the skies as it flew overhead.

Peregrine

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

Also posted in Bird of Prey Tagged |

Three Foxes and a Badger (video)

I’ll come to the video in a moment, but first some photos of one of the three buzzards that flew over the garden this morning. We do see them occasionally up here, but it’s a long time since I’ve seen three together (though only two feature in these photos, and I failed to get a group shot).

This is the first buzzard (which was closely followed by a second one). It flew across the rear of the garden, so I only had a few moments to get a photo.

Common buzzard

The third of the buzzards circled overhead for a while. These are two of the better photos. Both are hefty crops.

Common buzzard

Common buzzard

Now to the video. It’s a series of clips taken over the past two nights via the garden trail camera. The sequences include two clips of a badger, plus the three most regular fox visitors. Pretty you know (she’s by far the smaller of the group). There’s a large healthy male (Nicked Ear) who has been around for some time. The third fox has shown up up several times recently. He appears to have a mangey brush, though the rest of him doesn’t look too bad for now.

Finally, a photo of Pretty taken a couple of hours ago.

Fox on garden step

Camera note: all buzzard photos taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens. The fox was photographed with the EF 100mm f/2.8L macro IS USM lens. Video via the Bushnell Trophy HD.

Also posted in Badger, Behaviour, Bird of Prey, Foxes, mange Tagged , , , |

Dapper Duck Special

It was almost a beutiful day today. There was lots of sunshine, marred only by a few sharp showers that passed over quickly (though I did manage to get caught in one at lunchtime). The morning though was dry, and bright.

Down at Falmer Pond, the greylags were honking, and I watched pair come in to land on the water.

Greylag geese
Note the rather dapper duck in the background. He’s the Muscovy drake, and a fine looking duck if ever there was one. He’s taken a fancy to the park bench and commandeers it most mornings.

Muscovy duck on bench

Meanwhile the female Muscovy prefers the leafy fringes around the church. Here she is on the wall by the entrance.

Muscovy duck on wall

She then headed towards the ivy and eventually disappeared through the hedge into a neighbouring garden.

Muscovy duck on wall

One more of the drake. A face like this simply demands a portrait.

Muscovy duck portrait

That’s what I call a dapper duck!

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

Also posted in water birds Tagged |