Tag Archives: rat

Animals Being Active

No great theme today, and indeed I’ll start with a photo taken on Thursday at Falmer Pond. A number of people were out feeding the gulls (a mix of herring gulls and black-headed gulls), and the inevitable feeding frenzy followed. I decided to go for motion blur shots this time, despite the quite reasonable light. They were taken at between 1/13 and 1/15s at f/18 (I needed the small aperture to get the shutter speed down).

Motion blur gulls at Falmer

Motion blur gulls at Falmer

Sticking with motion blur, I photographed this little rat in mid shake. The shutter is around 1/125 which is fine when they keep still. I like it though. It had just jumped up on to the branch after a quick swim across the corner of the pond.

rat shaking itself dry

Rat shaking itself dry

Rat swimming

Rat swimming

The robins (who seem to share the same corner of the pond as the rats) were active again. I caught this little bird stretching its wing.

Robin stretching its wing

Robin stretching its wing

The last trio of photos were a chance sighting of a dog out in a local field. That’s not unusual in itself, but I’ve not previously seen one having this much fun playing with a broom!

Dog playing with broom

Dog playing with broom

Dog playing with broom

It seems there was a theme after all. Not planned, but there you go. Sometimes these things just fall into place.

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

Posted in Birds, dog, rats, Wildlife Also tagged , , , |

Cormorant All Dressed Up

The photos are nothing to write home about, but I’m putting them up as they are my first sighting this year of a cormorant in full breeding plumage. Note the white head feathers and large white patches under the wing.

Cormorant in breeding plumage

Cormorant in breeding plumage

Cormorant in breeding plumage

Those were taken at Seven Sisters.

And this was taken at Falmer (left over from Monday).

Two rats

Pair of Falmer Pond rats

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

Posted in rats, water birds Also tagged |

Two Ducks, a Rat and a Robin

Nothing unusual here at all. All three species are ever-present at Falmer Pond, and (ducks especially) can easily be overlooked in the search for blog content. Anyway, the first two shots were taken in dismal conditions early this morning. For those who wonder about such things, I’ve put the camera settings in the captions.

First up is a nice round robin, one of many that are active at the moment.

robin

ISO 6400, f/5.6, 1/125s

The rats were also busy down in the tree roots. I grabbed this shot when one ventured on to the bank where there was a touch more light.

rat

ISO 6400, f/5.6, 1/125s

It was slightly better at lunchtime, though still overcast with a hint of drizzle in the air. It flet cold enough for snow, but thankfully that held off. A cormorant was lurking on the island, but I couldn’t get any usable shots. Instead I spent the time watching ducks, including this lively pair.

female mallard

ISO 1600, f7.1, 1/800s

female mallard

ISO 1600, f7.1, 1/800s

male mallard

ISO 1600, f7.1, 1/800s

male mallard

ISO 1600, f7.1, 1/1250s

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

Posted in Birds, rats, water birds Also tagged , |