An unplanned follow up to yesterday’s ‘wet fox‘ post.

It’s barely light in the mornings at the moment. Sunrise is supposed to be a couple of minutes before 8.00am but the hills mean you can generally add 10 or 15 minutes to that before the sun appears over the raised horizon. That’s if it is going to appear. The solid cloud cover makes ‘sunrise’ a somewhat academic idea at the moment. Anyway, such were the conditions when I arrived at Falmer Pond a little after 8.00 this morning.

I set the camera on ISO 2500 (which for the 7D is a couple of notches beyond acceptable) and dodged the drizzle while watching to see what was around. A cormorant was lingering at the far end of the pond. The gulls were ambling up and down, and the few geese were grazing pond-side. Then I noticed a small V-shaped wake extending out from the island in the middle of the pond.

I’ve always assumed the rats makes their way to the centre of the pond, but it was good to have some proof in the form of one heading back to shore. And it swam quickly, covering the distance in less than a minute (including diving under the water on a couple of occasions as gulls flew in too low for comfort).

The weather (and light) had improved by the middle of the day, and the rats were making the most of it. I saw several scurrying around the narrow shore. They’re after the seeds left by the daily duck-feeders, so pickings are good. These are at a much more acceptable ISO of 1000.

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