Tag Archives: fox

Blackbird, Yellowhammer (and video fox)

February 19, 2014 by Words | 4 Comments

More grey skies and poor light, but the birds are becoming active despite the poor weather and none more so than the local blackbirds. This female was the highlight of an admittedly poor morning at the pond. But she was worth a couple of photos.

Female blackbird

Female blackbird

At lunchtime I went back through the woods. No buzzard today (but I am hopeful of more sightings). I did, however, photograph one of the recent storm casualties. There are several tree in this condition, and a large number of broken boughs.

Fallen tree in Westlain Plantation,

The woods lead out into local farmland, and (suitably booted) I ventured out across the fields. I could see pigeons in the distance, and crows and a good-sized and highly mobile flock of yellowhammers. With more time I might have managed something slightly better than this.

Yellowhammer

Yesterday I mentioned that I’d set the trail camera to video. Here’s the first clip of the year. Pretty is out with another (male) fox. It’s raining (when isn’t it at the moment?).

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

Posted in Birds, Foxes, Landscape Also tagged , , |

Down at the Pond and into the Woods

February 18, 2014 by Words | 2 Comments

Well it was dry today. Dull, with little or no sign of the sun until it was setting in the late afternoon. But dry is good; better than many of the days we’ve had in recent months so I won’t complain.

The early morning sequence was taken at Falmer Pond. It’s still very quiet there at the moment, but I did spot one cute little rat making its way carefully around the edge of the pond. The main route is now via the water.

Out to the edge of tree…
Rat at the edge of Falmer Pond

A strong paddle across the open water…
Rat swimming in Falmer Pond

And then clamber up into something a little more solid and secure.
Rat at the edge of Falmer Pond

I gave the pond a miss at lunchtime, and instead donned some wellington boots and headed off into the woodland at the edge of campus. It’s the first time I’ve been in the woods since the storms, and sure enough there were numerous fallen branches. I think this tree probably came down in a previous storm. It looked too well-set and comfortable to be a recent casualty.

Fallen tree in Westlain Plantation

The next shot was also taken in the woods. It’s the only usable one I managed (and it barely even qualifies as that), but having seen a buzzard flying in and around (and over) the trees several times while I was there I need something to record the encounter. Most of the time it was flying just over the trees, but once or twice it swooped along the paths. I’ve spotted buzzards here before so it wasn’t an unexpected sighting, just a rather good one.

buzzard

Back in the garden I’ve switched the trail camera back over to video. There were a couple of decent clips last night of Pretty with two different foxes (separate encounters). I’ll edit some sequences together over the next few days, but close tonight’s blog with a photo of her from a few minutes ago.

Fox

Camera note: rat and buzzard photos taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens; woodland scene taken with the EF17-40mm f/4L USM lens; and the fox with the EF 100mm f/2.8L macro IS USM.

Posted in Bird of Prey, Foxes, Landscape, rats, Wildlife Also tagged , , , |

More Rain Forecast

February 11, 2014 by Words | Comments Off

With the news media reporting that parts of the country will be suffering from floods until May I really shouldn’t complain too much about conditions locally. Yes we’re having an awful lot of rainfall, but these are chalk downs which drain freely and we happen to live at the top of them (more or less). Even so, the ground is sodden and getting about is difficult. Trains are cancelled, some local roads flood, and it is generally cold, wet and miserable outside.

On the plus side we’ve had some clear evenings (we saw the International Space Station fly over last night), and between the rain we have had some glimpses of sunshine. Still, it’s far from ideal weather for trekking around the countryside. Today I made do with a short walk around the edge of a couple of football pitches, having been lured there by a fleeting glimpse of a kestrel which then managed to evade me entirely. The views were nice though.

This is the path that runs along the playing fields (which are at the top of the slope on the left).

Path

This is taken from the far side of the pitches, looking across to Stanmer Park.

Stanmer Park

It was while I was on the far side of the fields that I had my second wildlife sighting. A woodpecker shot across my line of sight and disappeared into the tree-lined bank. I eventually tracked down a green woodpecker which was characteristically trying to hide from the camera.

Green woodpecker

Green woodpecker

We’re due a heavy downpour mid afternoon on Wednesday, accompanied by gale force winds and gusts over 60 mph. Thankfully it should pass quite quickly, but take care if you’re out in it.

And one fox photo (Pretty) from yesterday, just to keep things ticking over.

Foxes

Camera note: all photos taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens, except the fox which was taken with the EF 100mm f/2.8L macro IS USM lens.

Posted in Birds, Foxes, Landscape Also tagged , , |