A Fox Visits, and other recent photos

I'll start with a brief catch-up, mainly because I like the shots. The first was taken in the early hours of Saturday morning. The location: our back door. A small spider had snared a lacewing. The shot was taken with a very low flash, just enough to pick out the spider and its prey.

The next shot is one of a series taken on Saturday morning at Rottingdean. It's one of the rock pipits that inhabit the cliffs (alongside jackdaws, gulls and fulmars). The pipits are great little birds, flitting ceaselessly to and fro in search of their next meal.

As for the rest of this post, it's back to foxes (and about time too, I tell myself). After an absence of a week or so, Shutterbug was back in the garden today. His coat is recovering extremely well, and he's once again sporting a healthy looking brush which will thicken out as autumn approaches.

He was in an inquisitive mood, and came over to investigate the camera.

And he kept coming…

…and coming.

Eventually getting close enough to sniff the lens hood (just one more reason why you should always put a hood on a lens).

Quite why he's taken to daytime visits I don't know. I do suspect he's sleeping close by during the day, but he seems largely to have abandoned the garden at night to the young (and very shy) cub. Fathoming the reasoning behind the constant changes in fox territorial games isn't easy, but I'm sure they have their reasons; and equally certain is that whatever pattern is currently in place will be disrupted again come autumn when the preparations for the winter begin in earnest.
Nature Blog Network
Camera note: spider shot taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100mm f/2.8L macro IS USM lens. The pipit was photographed with the EF 400mm f/5.6L USM lens; and the fox with the EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM lens.

This Post Has 14 Comments

  1. anonymous

    25 Jul 2011

    Anonymous writes:

    Love the closeups of the fox – especially the last! Very neat!

    Marilyn

  2. RobinL

    25 Jul 2011

    Words, my what a curious boy! He's definitely looking better than last time. The Pipit certainly looks proud of it's catch!

  3. anonymous

    25 Jul 2011

    Wojtek writes:

    Shutterbug's showing his serious face there, hmm? 😛

  4. gdare

    25 Jul 2011

    Nice to see him being confident to come that close to you :yes:

  5. Words

    25 Jul 2011

    Darko, yes he's still inquisitive, and friendly 🙂

  6. Words

    25 Jul 2011

    Erwin, thanks!

  7. Words

    25 Jul 2011

    Wojtek, I think he was still sleepy. I would think that late afternoon is about when he wakes up!

  8. Words

    25 Jul 2011

    Robin, it's always a bit tricky during early summer telling whether a fox is just moulting heavily or has mange (or more likely, fleas). By autumn he should look great! The pipits are very active (young mouths to feed), so I suspect there was a happy youngster when that one flew back up to the cliff.

  9. Words

    25 Jul 2011

    Marilyn, thanks! These visits have become less frequent but he's still very cooperative when he does show up.

  10. anonymous

    29 Jul 2011

    Anonymous writes:

    Is the photographer reflected in the fox's eyes in the last picture?

  11. Words

    29 Jul 2011

    Yes 🙂

  12. SittingFox

    31 Jul 2011

    Wonderful closeups! And I like the shot of him sitting against the blur of flowers as well. He has the most enormous ears :eyes:

  13. Words

    1 Aug 2011

    Adele, thanks. The visits have been few and far between this year, but when they're good they've been very good.

  14. Wulpen

    19 Oct 2012

    Wonderful Photos :up:

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