{"id":1241,"date":"2008-11-07T00:11:35","date_gmt":"2008-11-07T00:11:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/archives\/1241"},"modified":"2013-11-19T00:18:08","modified_gmt":"2013-11-19T00:18:08","slug":"nicked-ear-pays-a-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/nicked-ear-pays-a-visit\/","title":{"rendered":"Nicked-ear pays a visit"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

I was beginning to wonder where the foxes had got to. I did see one across the road a few nights ago, trotting tidily along the pavement late at night, but other than several cats the garden has been unusually devoid of foxes. The rain of course doesn't help (it keeps me inside for some of the time, so the odds are I've missed numerous fleeting visits), though it has produced an explosion of sightings of the damselfly nymphs. The pond is swarming with them, so much so that I'm now in the business of selecting which shots of them to take. This is one from earlier this evening, which shows the distinctive triple tail fins (actually gills).<\/p>\n

Damselfly nymph<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

But this post is about foxes, and looking out into the garden later in the evening I saw a familiar shape by the pond. By this time I'd switched from the macro lens I'd been using earlier around the pond and had the 70-300mm zoom attached to the camera. For once, a good lens choice. These shots were all taken from a distance of about 30 feet.<\/p>\n

Nicked-ear vixen<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Up by the pond<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Given the scarcity of recent visits I stayed close to the back door, not wanting to startle her. Although she's reasonably relaxed about me being around, unlike the old dog fox or the bold vixen she isn't keen on getting too close (at least not unless she's the one making the decision). I was able to get a number of decent shots though as she nipped back and forth across the garden.<\/p>\n

Pausing to look<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Until finally she decided she'd had enough and zipped back across the garden and out under the fence.<\/p>\n

Exit right<\/span><\/a>
\"Nature<\/a><\/span>
Camera note: the damselfly nymph was photographed with the Sigma 105mm F2.8 EX DG macro lens plus Kenko Teleplus 1.4x Pro 300 DG teleconverter. For the vixen I used the EF70-300mm 4.5-5.6 DO IS lens. All shots were lit by the Canon 430EX flash unit.<\/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":[4,239],"tags":[472,1128],"class_list":["post-1241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-foxes","category-nymph","tag-damselfly-nymph","tag-fox","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