{"id":997,"date":"2007-11-12T22:11:54","date_gmt":"2007-11-12T22:11:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/archives\/997"},"modified":"2013-11-23T12:43:03","modified_gmt":"2013-11-23T12:43:03","slug":"catching-lunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/catching-lunch\/","title":{"rendered":"Catching lunch"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

Watching, waiting…<\/i><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Bzzzzz… lunch is ready!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Coming ready or not!<\/i><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Smart little bird. The sequence above comprises a burst of three shots. It was only when I processed the photos that I could see what it was doing. They are incredibly quick and I got rather a lot of photos of brickwork while I was taking these (something over a hundred frames in about 15-20 minutes). As well as diving off rooftops they are a dab hand at more traditional stalking… two more shots taken as a burst.<\/p>\n

Slowly does it<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Gotcha!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

More of today's pied wagtail shots, plus some earlier ones are over on my website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the foxes are very active. Last night I could hear them calling out from the front of the house, and on peering out of the kitchen window I could see a pair darting in and out of the gardens opposite. Possibly our regular ones, but it was too dark to tell for sure. Tonight the shy fox (white-tipped brush) shot across the rear garden while I was out there, far too fast for a photo. A second fox was lurking, but didn't put in an appearance. The night-time activity is very typical of the time of year. The breeding season is not far off, and the foxes are sorting out their winter territories. So if you have local urban foxes you may well see them after dark. The juveniles are now about 8 months old and will be soon be parents (they can breed from about 10 months), so a certain amount of pairing off is also taking place, and the nightly noise level will gradually increase.<\/p>\n

Finally, a brief plug for a new fox website, developed by the Mammal Group at the University of Bristol. The researchers there, led by Professor Steve Harris, are the leading authorities on urban foxes and have carried out extensive research into their behaviour. It's an excellent and highly informative resource and well worth a visit. It's called The Fox Website<\/a>, and you may even spot one or two of my photos over there \ud83d\ude09 <\/p>\n

Camera note: Pied wagtail photos taken with the EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.<\/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":[980],"tags":[1128,120],"class_list":["post-997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birds-2","tag-fox","tag-pied-wagtail","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