{"id":1844,"date":"2011-02-09T23:02:35","date_gmt":"2011-02-09T23:02:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/archives\/1844"},"modified":"2013-11-09T19:21:34","modified_gmt":"2013-11-09T19:21:34","slug":"some-proper-animals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/some-proper-animals\/","title":{"rendered":"Some Proper Animals"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

Ok, that's a silly title, but after all the exotic posts of late, with strange birds and (certainly) some 'improper' behaviour, today is altogether more conventional. Native and common species of birds and a couple of mammals. And they don't come more common than the urban pigeon, although this one was enjoying a relaxing time resting in the warm sunshine.
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Another of our very common species is the magpie, currently the subject of a call by the Songbird Survival Trust for a cull on the grounds that it's devastating our songbird population. True, magpies raid nests but the reasons for a reduction in our songbirds are complex and there is very limited research to support a cull and no objective basis to blame magpies and other corvids. The RSPB cite changes in farming methods, pollution and reduced habitat as far more likely reasons for a decline in songbirds. Anyway, I think they are quite splendid birds and worthy of a photo or two.
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Unsurprisingly, two smaller species were happily sharing the park today. Magpies or no magpies, we seem to have plenty of these bold little feathered songsters.
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And even the less well known long-tailed tit is quite easy to find.
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As for the common mammals, well the first is a grey squirrel. Like the magpie, something of a rogue and subject to culling in the North of England (in that instance it is to protect our highly endangered red squirrel, and there is a strong evidence base to support the action). Down South we now only have the grey, but it proves popular with the locals (especially those who carry peanuts in their pockets).
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The second mammal for today is a somewhat obvious choice. The young male fox was hanging around again late last night and gave me my first decent opportunity with the 7D. Here's a few shots.
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Finally, a week or so ago I mentioned that we had a possible mange victim<\/a> among the local foxes. I don't know whether or not this is the same fox, but if it is its condition is deteriorating quite rapidly. Given the scarcity of sightings I am not at all confident we'll be able to treat it (the odds of catching it – rather than the multitude of more regular foxes – are small, and in situ <\/i>treatment almost impossible unless the fox is a relatively confident and frequent visitor). This is a still from last night's trail cam. Not pretty \ud83d\ude41
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Camera note: all shots taken with the Canon 7D. The park photos were taken with the EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens. The fox was photographed with the EF 100mm f\/2.8L macro IS USM lens. The mange fox was caught on the Bushnell Trophy Cam (video mode).<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[980,4,67],"tags":[1128,1182,109,1146,59,78,1141],"class_list":["post-1844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birds-2","category-foxes","category-mange","tag-fox","tag-long-tailed-tit","tag-magpie","tag-mange","tag-pigeon","tag-robin","tag-squirrel","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