{"id":2814,"date":"2013-08-03T00:19:07","date_gmt":"2013-08-02T23:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/?p=2814"},"modified":"2013-08-05T00:39:48","modified_gmt":"2013-08-04T23:39:48","slug":"a-day-of-surprises-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/a-day-of-surprises-3\/","title":{"rendered":"A Day of Surprises"},"content":{"rendered":"

As everyone who reads this blog will know, I visit Falmer Pond very frequently and so there’s generally very little that occurs that that comes in the category of a surprise. There are the regular ducks and gulls and geese, and the more or less occasional visits by herons, egrets, sandpipers and cormorants. Today though there a pair of birds did catch me by surprise. I presume they have flown in, but the village pond being what it is I suppose they could have walked over from a neighbouring farm, or even been ‘released’ at the pond from captivity or rescue. I really don’t know. Anyway, whatever I do expect to see at the pond, I really wasn’t expecting this beautiful pair of Muscovy ducks.<\/p>\n

\"Male<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Female<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Male<\/a><\/p>\n

They were very placid, and spent most of the time standing calmly at the edge of the pond watching the world go by. And the world in this case includes a World War 2 German aircraft! This flew over at lunchtime. It’s actually a Gomhouria Mk 6, made up in Luftwaffe livery.<\/p>\n

\"B\u00fccker<\/a><\/p>\n

There was one more surprise waiting for me when I arrived home. Young foxes start life by being fed, and gradually learn to scavenge. At around this age (just over five months) they develop their hunting skills. I came home to find the evidence of their first ‘kill’. I knew it was dead because it had flies on it. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

\"Prey<\/a><\/p>\n

And here’s one of the villains of the piece.<\/p>\n

\"5<\/a>
\nCamera note: all shots taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As everyone who reads this blog will know, I visit Falmer Pond very frequently and so there’s generally very little that occurs that that comes in the category of a surprise. There are the regular ducks and gulls and geese, and the more or less occasional visits by herons, egrets, sandpipers and cormorants. Today though […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[118,1142,1128,977],"class_list":["post-2814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wildlife","tag-aircraft","tag-cub","tag-fox","tag-muscovy-duck","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