{"id":2237,"date":"2012-04-04T23:04:13","date_gmt":"2012-04-04T22:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/archives\/2237"},"modified":"2013-11-05T22:09:53","modified_gmt":"2013-11-05T22:09:53","slug":"it-does-get-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/it-does-get-better\/","title":{"rendered":"It does get better&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n<p><!--more-->The title is an oblique reference to the frustration of seeing some great wildlife action but being far too distant to capture an image. It was like that this morning, in the fields by the edge of Westlain Plantation, a small local wood. <\/p>\n<p>A kestrel was flying out over the the field, sweeping and swooping low into the valley. Fantastic to watch, but even with an almighty crop this is about the best I can manage from the camera. It reminds me of what I saw, but as a photo I&#39;m not really convinced by it.<br \/><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/kestrel_0404127841.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>I&#39;ve been after a photo of the local green woodpeckers for several weeks now. I see them (flying through the wood and impossible to grab a focus), I hear them calling (loud, unmistakeable); but until today they had evaded the camera. I&#39;d just finished watching the kestrel when one of the woodpeckers broke cover and flew out over open land&#8230; into the distance. At least the shot proves it was there, but not much else. Once again a massive crop&#8230;<br \/><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/gwp_0404127894.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>It does get better though. Sandwiched between those two sightings was something rather good. And relatively close; about as close as I&#39;ve ever been to this particular bird when it&#39;s perching. I&#39;d just come round the edge of where two fields abut the wood when I spotted it. A buzzard was sitting imperiously high in a tree, scanning the field. <br \/><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/buzzard_0404127858.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/buzzard_0404127862.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>This was the second or third time I&#39;ve seen a buzzard in these woods, so it does seem to be a regular haunt. And it&#39;s convenient&#8230; about as convenient as it could be. I park my car at work about 50 yards from where I took this. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p>The fox sightings are also on a good roll at the moment, and back in the garden this evening Shutterbug showed up. He is looking a little battered and judging from the wound on his neck he may have been in one or two scraps.<br \/><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/fox_shutterbug_0404128107.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>He has his good side too&#8230; so to balance things out here are a couple more shots from this evening.<br \/><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/fox_shutterbug_0404128095.jpg' \/><\/span> <\/p>\n<p><span class='imgcenter'><img alt='' src='https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/fox_shutterbug_0404128119.jpg' \/><\/span> <br \/><span class=\"aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/natureblognetwork.com\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/natureblognetwork.com\/button.php?u=Words\" width=\"0\" height=\"0\" alt=\"Nature Blog Network\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/span><br \/><a title=\"site stats\" href=\"http:\/\/statcounter.com\/free-web-stats\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/c.statcounter.com\/7187219\/0\/2c644058\/1\/\" alt=\"site stats\" style=\"border:none;\" \/><\/a><br \/><i>Camera note: all birds taken with the Canon 7D  and EF 400mm f\/5.6L USM lens. Fox photographs with the EF 24-105 F4L IS USM  lens.<\/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":[990,980,4,3],"tags":[179,1128,222,1152],"class_list":["post-2237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bird-of-prey","category-birds-2","category-foxes","category-wildlife","tag-buzzard","tag-fox","tag-green-woodpecker","tag-kestrel","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2237\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}