A bit of a mixed bag today, but it started well when I spotted a green woodpecker looking for breakfast (the woodpecker, not me) in a field just outside Falmer.
The rats were also enjoying an early feed, grabbing scraps that the ducks couldn’t reach.
By lunchtime we were into another sunny, but cold day. More rats provided the entertainment.
As for this evening, well it’s November the 5th which means fireworks. Here’s a couple of shots OPFs (other people’s fireworks) taken from the garden.
Camera note: wildlife photos taken with the Canon 7D Mark II and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens. Fireworks taken with the EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM lens.
Darko
7 Nov 2014What’s the reason for fireworks?
Words
7 Nov 2014November the 5th is Guy Fawkes Night and celebrates a failed attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament. There’s a long tradition, and locally at Lewes (5 miles from here) they go absolutely bonkers!
Kari
10 Nov 2014I really like how sharp and clear your pictures are. I wish I could capture my local wildlife with my camera, but they aren’t cooperating very well. I always run into them when I least expect it and never have my camera with me. A lot like shopping I expect you never find something when your looking for it. It is always at night too when I get off the late shift. I just turn a corner and there they are last night was a rabbit, a cotton tail. We also get these brown rabbits with longer legs. Jackrabbits? They move real fast. To keep away from the foxes I guess they need to be. Thats the problem everything moves so fast. Need a camera with a fast shutter speed. The foxes kind of take there time if you don’t get to close. Whats funny is I am walking through the center of town when I spot them. Or just behind were I live, there is a creek back there. I live in Virginia, Fairfax county to be exact. I have seen skunk, foxes, a raccoon, and the rabbits. The strangest was a mink! I thought I was dreaming. It was right up the street. I first saw a shadow kind of loping across the street. It wasn’t scurrying like a rat or a squirrel and didn’t have a bushy tail. I tried to slowly get closer, I wish the lighting was better it was dusk and the parking lot lights weren’t on yet. He was by the chain link fence and tried to hide in the shadow of a tree. He kind of looked like a small ferret. He ran long the fence until he found an opening. I wish he would have stayed longer! Come back I want to be friends! Ferrets aren’t wild in North America so thats how I guessed it was a mink. Have you ever seen a European mink? European minks are related to ferrets, polecats and otters.
Words
12 Nov 2014Kari, thanks for posting. It sounds like you have some interesting wildlife where you are.
I’ve never seen a mink in the wild. The European mink is restricted to Eastern Europe. The ones we have in the UK are American mink, usually escapees from fur farms that have become feral. They’re not popular (they out-compete native wildlife). We do have stoats and weasels though.