I saw seven foxes on a very short walk this afternoon. And six of them were very tiny!



Five of them were gathered before an open gate right at the very top of one of the meadows, over 700 feet away from me. Photographing small animals at that range is right at the limit of my camera's ability and these pictures are heavy crops of 500mm. However, they were marvellous fun to watch

You can see the cub on the left here nuzzling the adult's mouth. The highest authorities in canid research state in the published literature that no foxes of any species regurgitate food for their young in the manner that wolves and dogs do; however, this cub looks to be begging for precisely that



They were all very playful...



...but due to the distance, poor light and motion, I quickly opted for the camcorder above the DSLR. I've started this with footage of the sixth cub, who was by himself in another field, and fortunately only a few meters from me! (Usual YouTube warning - if the video doesn't work, please press F5 to refresh your browser).



Away from the foxes, the other notable action has been the boistrous exploration by several magpie fledglings that seem to have adopted next door's aerial as a lookout post. Yesterday morning, I saw one of the youngsters on our veranda inquisitively pecking at the flower baskets. I almost reached for my camera, but unfortunately trains don't wait for commuters preoccupied with magpies, so I had to dash. I did, however, today photograph one of the parents pulling moss off the roof tiles.



Finally, here's another video - a short clip that I obtained while filming the cubs. A male great spotted woodpecker, for reasons best known to himself, was climbing along a fence rather than up a tree!