Birds on a wire

I came across this flock of house martins (plus a few swallows) this morning on the way to work. Too good an opportunity to miss! They tend to flock together like this as they prepare for their return to winter in Africa. This doesn't bode well for the weather over the next few weeks if they are really about to set off on their travels.

House martin (right), young swallow (left)

Swallow

House martin

And as a sort of postscript to last night's entry where I mentioned the scrap between two young foxes. Well, they repeated the game in front of the trail cam later on 😉 Edit: see comments… I've revised my impression of what's going on in the video. It may be the vixen being aggressive with a cub (possibly not hers, hard to tell)


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Camera note: all shots taken with the EF 400mm f/5.6L USM lens.

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This Post Has 13 Comments

  1. gdare

    30 Jul 2009

    Birds of feather flock together 😀

  2. RobinL

    31 Jul 2009

    Nice shots. I certainly hope they are like most weathermen and got it wrong!

  3. Words

    31 Jul 2009

    Robin, the summer has all but disappeared unfortunately, so they may be right. 🙁

  4. Words

    31 Jul 2009

    Thanks Antonietta! They are really having a go at each other in the video aren't they.

  5. fainoantonietta

    31 Jul 2009

    The photos are really beautiful and the video is extraordinary :yes:

  6. Words

    31 Jul 2009

    Darko, thanks! It must happen every year, but it's the first time I recall seeing it.

  7. fainoantonietta

    31 Jul 2009

    Are'nt foxes in the video? :confused: 🙂

  8. Flying Red Fox Blog

    31 Jul 2009

    Very nice catch of the Foxy playfighting (hope it is anyways!) 😛 The Swallows might be heading back but hopefully it will be nicer in August.

    We did have a nicer June though, but understandably people write it off if its not as hot during the time when most are off i guess.

    When i was at Chichester Planetarium a couple of months back, the professor said that this might be due to the Sun having a long period of inactivity and no sunspots, we might get sunnier weather when the Sun gets active and sunspots return. – whether thats true or not remains to be seen! 😆

  9. SittingFox

    31 Jul 2009

    Wow, they certainly weren't pulling their punches! :knight:

    I think autumn is coming 😉 The blackberries are starting to ripen up here!

  10. Words

    31 Jul 2009

    Mark, thanks for the sun spot update. Today was much brighter, and Sunday looks ok too. The more I look at the video the less I'm convinced it was play. The second fox may be the vixen, in which case this was serious. Certainly looked pretty rough :yikes:

  11. Words

    1 Aug 2009

    Adele, as I mentioned to Mark I'm not convinced this was entirely playful. Autumn? You're just waiting for the leaves to fall so you can see the birds in the trees 😉

  12. Ukwildlife

    2 Aug 2009

    great captures, especially the house martin close up – Im jealous of that one!

  13. Words

    2 Aug 2009

    Neil, thanks! I've got to say it was one of the easier shots to get. There were a hundred or so of them settled on wires. I couldn't miss 😉

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