{"id":1173,"date":"2008-07-12T23:07:13","date_gmt":"2008-07-12T22:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/archives\/1173"},"modified":"2013-11-20T19:16:39","modified_gmt":"2013-11-20T19:16:39","slug":"an-unexpected-treat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/an-unexpected-treat\/","title":{"rendered":"An unexpected treat"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

I had half an hour to kill this morning and went along to Hove Park to pass the time. It's one of those urban spaces which is little more than a sports field and area to run dogs. Very flat, with few features apart from trees around all four sides. The weather was overcast, but plenty of people were about so I wasn't sure if I'd even get the camera out. But something caught my eye flying across on the far side of the park, and I went closer to investigate. <\/p>\n

I was right about the brief sighting I'd had. It was worth the chase, and eventually I spotted what I was looking for high in the trees.<\/p>\n

Green Woodpecker<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

I see green woodpeckers reasonably frequently, usually flying at high speed in the wrong direction and next to impossible to photograph. So a chance to take some reasonable shots was very welcome indeed (despite the poor light). And while I was watching – and snapping – I noticed a second bird flit into view. Now this was (for me) even more special as I almost never see them. Typically though it remained firmly on the wrong side of the tree trunk. But it's a great spotted woodpecker (honest!).<\/p>\n

Great Spotted Woodpecker<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

And to complete the day, the nicked-ear vixen paid a very brief visit to the garden this evening. She looks like she's in competition to be the grubbiest fox on the block, but although she only stayed a moment it was long enough for me to grab this shot of her at her cutest.<\/p>\n

Nicked-Ear Vixen<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Camera note: Woodpeckers were photographed with the EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens. The vixen was snapped with the EF70-300mm 4.5-5.6 DO IS.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[980,4],"tags":[1128,115],"class_list":["post-1173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birds-2","category-foxes","tag-fox","tag-woodpecker","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t