Seasonal newcomers, and a fox visit

After the recent 'new arrivals' post today saw a couple more seasonal arrivals at the pond. Both of them were herons, this one being chased off early this morning by one of the resident gulls.

The second heron was doing what herons do best. Fishing. But don't tell the council.

Back home this evening the insects were enjoying the latter part of what turned out to be a surprisingly sunny day. Even the bees were turning somersaults 😉

Over the winter I posted numerous photos of damselfly nymphs. Well, they've begun to emerge and several were hovering around the shrubs at the bottom of the garden tonight.

Then, just before sunset, Shutterbug appeared. Always good to see a fox about the place. The light was fading fast and these were shot at ISO 1600 with shutter speeds of around 1/125s. Not ideal…


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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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This Post Has 10 Comments

  1. derWandersmann

    2 May 2012

    He certainly is a good-looking fellow.
    That great blue is in such a classic pose, but the one being chased is flying wrong … hasn't he got his head tucked in yet?
    Is that a dogwood that the bee is on?
    And what is that leaf that the damselfly is on?

  2. gdare

    2 May 2012

    It seems that fishing birds adore to sit on "No Fishing" signs 😀

    Great photo of Shutterbug, the first one :yes:

  3. Words

    2 May 2012

    dW, the gulls are very unhappy about the herons at the moment. I'll have another shot in tonight's blog. These are actually grey herons, though I suspect they are very similar to your blue ones. They look exactly the same to me!

    The bee is actually on a small apple tree, and the leaf is a common nettle.

  4. Words

    2 May 2012

    Darko, herons aren't stupid. Those signs are a dead give away that there are fish in the vicinity!

    The fox shots were a bit of struggle in poor light, but I like that first one too.

  5. SittingFox

    4 May 2012

    Always good to see Shutterbug. I wonder why the gulls are so irritated with the herons. I've seen jackdaws chasing them as well, but assumed that they'd mistaken them for a raptor.

  6. Words

    5 May 2012

    Adele, I imagine the gulls will calm down, but they are just getting settled into nesting so their behaviour is a bit erratic at the moment. Several of them tried to attack my car radio antenna last week as well!

  7. Words

    5 May 2012

    Thanks Erwin!

  8. serola

    7 May 2012

    Originally posted by Words:

    The fox shots were a bit of struggle in poor light, but I like that first one too.

    :yes: The first fox shot is 😎

  9. Words

    7 May 2012

    Sami, thanks!

  10. Wulpen

    19 Oct 2012

    Lovely Pict

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