{"id":2256,"date":"2012-04-27T23:04:09","date_gmt":"2012-04-27T22:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/archives\/2256"},"modified":"2013-11-05T21:05:58","modified_gmt":"2013-11-05T21:05:58","slug":"swallows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/swallows\/","title":{"rendered":"Swallows"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

It's still a long way from being summer and we've another wet weekend to look forward to, but the swallows are now arriving back from their winter feeding grounds in number. The large flocks aren't here yet, but these aerial acrobats are beginning to dominate the skies… and the telephone and power lines that criss cross the countryside.
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The swallows aren't the only new arrivals. It was doing its best to remain out of sight, but I spotted a common sandpiper at the pond this morning. It's a difficult bird to approach, but it's there somewhere in the centre of this shot.
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I also finally managed a photo of an orange tip butterfly (actually of two, a male and female). I've seen lots of them recently, but today was the first time they settled long enough for a photo.
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Two more shots to close. First is one of many rabbit shots I've been getting this year. It was taken at the end of the day and I liked the dusting of insect life drifting in the low sunshine.
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And finally, a fox. Shutterbug to be precise. He was the second fox to pass through the garden this evening. A vixen came by earlier. She paused briefly to look at us, but then slinked away before I could get the camera. Shutterbug is rather more cooperative. With luck he'll even bring his cubs to visit.
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Camera note: all daytime shots taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens. Fox photographed with the EF 100mm f\/2.8L macro 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":[980,992,4,8],"tags":[766,1128,712,1130,1165],"class_list":["post-2256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birds-2","category-butterfly-insects-2","category-foxes","category-rabbit","tag-common-sandpiper","tag-fox","tag-orange-tip-butterfly","tag-rabbit","tag-swallow","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