We've 'officially' given up with trying to get a third mange dose into the dog fox. He isn't showing up (or if he is, it's when we're not around). Staring at an empty garden for several hours at a stretch can make you stir crazy, and to be honest if he did show at a reasonable time he'd wait around anyway. We can't leave the dose out for him, because the chances are some other fox would get there first, including it seems another adult.
We glanced outside mid evening and a large fox was on the lawn. It scurried to the back of the garden when it saw us, so getting any confirmed identification (or photo) was impossible. I suspect though that it was Kinky, the vixen we treated at the beginning of the year. The behaviour was the giveaway: come to the front of the lawn (where she got her medicine), spot us lurking behind the door and then scarper to the steps at the rear of the garden, a long stare in our direction and then off. If it is her, then the odds are that she has plans to use the same earth as last year 🙂
The young fox, by the way, came by again
I've been experimenting a bit with camera settings, and when I'm up close I've been turning the flash as low as it will go. It gives a nice soft image, and keeps the background virtually unlit. Makes for decent portrait shots.
I also managed a couple of decent photos of gulls in flight today, and another totally blurred Sparrowhawk. That sparrowhawk is becoming even more of a challenge than the woodpeckers because it simply won't fly in range of my camera.
I'll only inflict one of the pictures on you here. If you want to look, the rest are on an experimental page I've created on my main site. I need to work on the template, but it should save me a lot of time with my main fox galleries once I've sorted out some of the quirks. The page is made with an ancient version of Arles Image Web Page Creator (I'm using version 3.3).
SittingFox
27 Nov 2006Nice gull and foxes 🙂 and I hope Kinky has come home, but I'm still feeling sore about sparrowhawks 😥 😉
What shutter speed did you use on the fox pics?
Words
27 Nov 2006The fox pictures are at 1/60 with the flash notched down 2/3rds of a point on the first photo, and 2 full points on the second. I also underexpose by about 1/3rd of a point.
I spent a few minutes today trying to photograph pied wagtails in poor daytime light. The little things don't keep still for a moment… grrrrr.
KayFour
28 Nov 2006I stopped by today to catch up on all the blogs I have been missing. Very nice photos here, I have to say. Always good to see my foxy friends and you have added new creatures, too. Fabulous photography!
Thanks for sharing!
K4
ALLY_G
2 Dec 2006What a wonderful photo of the gull :up:
Words
2 Dec 2006Thanks K and Elke. My range of creatures is growing, but the foxes will always have centre stage. 😉