The foxes may be giving me the runaround at the moment, but another local mammal is proving rather easier to capture in the lens. So much so that I’m running out of blog titles for these posts.

There are two sequences here, taken at opposite ends of Falmer Pond. Both feature adult rats. A woman walked past as I was photographing the first sequence. She’d seen something dart into the bushes, paused and then moved closer to look again. I confirmed that, yes it was a rat. She said it looked rather cute! So here’s cute rat number one. It was coming out to snaffle up crumbs of bread left over from duck-feeding on the pond fringe.

rat foraging

rat foraging

rat foraging

The second sequence was taken at the top of the steep bank at the village end of the pond. This particular rat would appear over the side of the bank, dash forward, grab some seeds and dash back under cover.

rat foraging

rat foraging

rat foraging

There are still several foxes visiting, a couple of which are bearing typical fox leg injuries: Nicked Ear has a hind leg injury, and another of the foxes is carrying one of its front legs. We’ve also had badgers come and go.

I’ll close tonight’s post with some footage of the badgers, and good thoughts towards those out in the West Country working to #stopthecull

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

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