The beginning of autumn has proved a very quiet period for me, and the rain hasn’t helped. A small handful of shots from today, just to keep things going.
The first is a rather cute and fluffy pair of jackdaws.
Next is a collared dove, posing (as they do) on a gravestone in the churchyard.
Finally, another shot of a young rat putting its head out to see if the rain had stopped (it hadn’t).
Camera note: all shots taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.
The local rat population is still thriving down at the edge of pond. It’s not as though the place is overrun with them (you do have to look carefully to see them), but they are certainly there.
Generally these rats are very shy and will scurry under cover at the slightest movement. The younger rats are bolder (i.e. they have a less well developed sense of danger), hence this sequence is of a juvenile.
The final shot is simply to prove that the adults are around. It’s much larger than the young rat, and as you can see it has a much squarer head. I’d spotted it several times as it ranged along the bank of the pond, but apart from this one shot it was always to fast for the camera.
Camera note: all shots taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.
A day of two halves (if you stretch the final hour or so of the day to a half). Anyway, I was greeted today by torrential rain, which eased sufficiently to allow a couple of early morning shots of the local heron.
That first shot was taken from the car. The rain had eased slightly by the time I got this slow-shutter shot of the heron gliding over the water.
The rain moved away mid morning, but it was wet again at lunchtime. That was the pattern for the day, showers and limited sun, interspersed by heavier rainfall. Until evening. Then the sun came out, dropping below the clouds and casting long shadows across the garden. And with the sun came a fox: Bully Boy (of course).
Camera note: fox shots taken with the Canon 7D and EF 24-105 F4L IS USM lens. Heron photographed with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.
