Category Archives: Wildlife

Samples of wildlife photography

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 , , , |

Great Spotted Woodpecker plus Some Fox Portraits

It was misty this morning, turning to rain which stayed with us until after lunch. That didn’t stop this great spotted woodpecker popping out for some early morning hammering.

Great spotted woodpecker

Great spotted woodpecker

Great spotted woodpecker

There wasn’t much else of note around. The rats were sheltering out of sight, and the geese and ducks were sitting out the drizzle. It was worse at lunchtime (real rainfall kept me inside), so the rest of the post is taken up with a few portraits of Pretty from this evening. It’s been a while since I’ve posted a series of fox photos, but she’s been a constant visitor throughout.

She seems to spend quite a bit of time sleeping or sheltering in that corner at the back of the garden.
fox in garden

This is at the front of the garden.
fox in garden

Licking her lips!
Fox licking lips

But it’s such a hard life… yawn!
Fox yawning

Camera note: woodpecker photos taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens. Fox photographed with the EF 100mm f/2.8L macro IS USM lens.

Also posted in Birds, Foxes Tagged , |

Blackbird, Yellowhammer (and video fox)

More grey skies and poor light, but the birds are becoming active despite the poor weather and none more so than the local blackbirds. This female was the highlight of an admittedly poor morning at the pond. But she was worth a couple of photos.

Female blackbird

Female blackbird

At lunchtime I went back through the woods. No buzzard today (but I am hopeful of more sightings). I did, however, photograph one of the recent storm casualties. There are several tree in this condition, and a large number of broken boughs.

Fallen tree in Westlain Plantation,

The woods lead out into local farmland, and (suitably booted) I ventured out across the fields. I could see pigeons in the distance, and crows and a good-sized and highly mobile flock of yellowhammers. With more time I might have managed something slightly better than this.

Yellowhammer

Yesterday I mentioned that I’d set the trail camera to video. Here’s the first clip of the year. Pretty is out with another (male) fox. It’s raining (when isn’t it at the moment?).

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

Also posted in Birds, Foxes, Landscape Tagged , , , |