I think vultures get an unnecessarily bad press. Yes, they may well spend their lives benefiting from the hard work of predators and the misfortunes of prey, but their reactions and observation skills take some beating. When on safari in Africa, searching for a tiny populations of great cats in an intimidatingly expansive landscape, you quickly learn that a cluster of downward circling vultures is the best way - indeed, sometimes the only way - to locate lions. Vultures zero in on big cats that have made a successful kill with astonishing rapidity. And even here in the North Downs, our "vulture" is no slouch. The scenery is a little different, but the principle is the same. Instead of griffon vultures chasing lions, we have magpies chasing foxes!


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Spring is slow this year. The snow has largely gone, for now, despite another fall on Thursday, but the frosts are still heavy.



Cold sunny mornings without wind = perfect winter fox-watching weather



I found two male foxes in one of the meadows; the one above was the nearest. The other was the huge black-brushed male whom I last saw here about a month ago. I wonder where he has been He was far too distant for comfortable photography, but I'm posting this anyway because I was glad to see him



The closer fox eventually arose from sitting in the sunshine. What happened next was very curious. He swiftly trotted across about thirty feet's worth of tussock grass, holding his head sideways as though listening intensely...



...and pounced!





I constantly remind myself that foxes do not physically experience the world in the same way that I do - their eyesight is weaker, their hearing and sense of smell far stronger - but even so, I'm absolutely staggered that he detected the movement of a rodent from that range

I wasn't the only one watching him. The magpies were on the post within seconds.



But their luck was out. I don't think that the fox left any scraps for the vultures today.
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By this stage, I knew I had enough photos to write a blog post and wasn't particularly looking for anything else to happen as I headed home. But something most certainly did happen.

I caught a yaffle!

Green Woodpecker