After a grey, damp start to the day it turned out to be a fine, warm summer afternoon. The breeze was up, but it was perfect for a walk along the coast at Rottingdean. The tide was in when we arrived, and the sea was light, but choppy.

There were the usual array of gulls, and every now and then a cormorant would sweep overhead, making their habitual run between the high cliffs at Telscombe and Brighton Marina.

The one surprise was the relatively small number of jackdaws. They usually dominate the cliff tops, but today they were seemingly outnumbered by the larger member of the same family, the carrion crow.

I wasn’t going to post any foxes today, but the foxes being what they are presented a couple of photo opportunities that were too good to miss. First of these is Pretty (in the foreground) and Bully Boy, sitting on the garden steps.

Bully Boy takes centre stage for the final sequence. These were taken a couple of hours ago. He’s high on the apex of our roof!

Camera note: Rottingdean shots taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens; the pair of foxes taken with the EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM; and the roof top excursion with the EF 24-105 F4L IS USM lens.

The common sandpiper isn’t all that common a sighting at Falmer Pond. They show up occasionally in ones and twos, but they tend to be more at hope on larger expanses of water. The pond doesn’t offer much in the way of shallow wading, especially for such small birds. They are also quite timid, and will take off for the cover of low hanging bushes and trees as soon as they notice any movement.

As it happened it was raining heavily this morning, so I stayed put in the car which is how I got these shots. Cars make near-perfect hides, and the sandpiper came up right alongside, just beneath where I was parked at the edge of the pond.

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