I hardly want to clutter my blog with stories of technical woes, but I do owe an explanation for my lack of posts in the last few days I have just about adjusted to my poor old computer dramatically expiring on my birthday but unfortunately my camera is on the brink as well, and has been ever since I arrived back from Canada. It's not an irredeemable problem (part of the sensor needs correcting) and hopefully it will be back in action fairly shortly

So, unfortunately, my APN album is still waiting for new pictures The trees are looking colourful and the garden is being visited after dark by the Chipped Vixen and the sandy-coloured male, who seem to be our most consistant foxes at the moment. The pen is currently empty.

Anyway, I have at least been able to upload an album of my Albertan pictures, which can be found here.



Hopefully I'll be able to resume normal blogging activity soon!

Berry season seems to be quickening. The soft white flowers of thimbleberries have vanished, and darkening fruit is in their place.



I tried one of these fruits today, a bit apprehensively after my flower book described them as "insipid". I don't think I agree; it tasted more like grapefruit than anything else. But strawberries still win
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The dust is starting to settle on the bear killing incident. I knew very well that I was likely to see things of that nature out here, and in fact one of my motivations for coming was to learn more about how large carnivores are treated by rural communities.

All the same, it is rather depressing that some people continue to endanger wildlife through something as banal as storing their garbage in weak containers. Most of the world is struggling with much more serious conservation dilemmas - in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for example, local rangers work to protect their gorillas despite a horrific civil war and armed rebels invading their parks. I wonder what these brave people, who risk their lives so often, would think of those who do not even put a proper lid on a dustbin to save their native wildlife
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On a better note I have received some SD cards for the trail cameras, and although one camera has stopped working again, the other is currently out on the estuary. I'll leave it there for a week and then see if we've caught anything. It may take a little while to be successful, however.


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Down on the water this evening, I noticed a small group of shorebirds / waders delicately floating about. They puzzle me. I guess being born in the North Downs is perhaps not the best start for learning about waders but I've been through my birdbook twice, and cannot identify these.





Oh well.

And here's a merganser shot from a few evenings ago.

I wasn't keen to go for a walk this evening as I seem to have developed an intermittent fever and a head cold but went for a quick drive instead. I saw a couple of foxes in the Uband male's territory, the first of whom was signalled to me by two rabbits sitting bolt upright on their hindlegs like meerkats while their largely disinterested foe wandered nearby.

No pictures but no matter; the Old Dogfox showed up in the garden

Although I used the 30D extensively during my Canadian trip (600 pictures! I still can't believe I took so many ) this was my first chance to try it on a situation where I played with the old 300D many times over. So it was a bit of a test shoot

Only to make it more fun, light levels were quite low and the 300mm lens cannot compare to the Tamron Under these circumstances, I would have been grateful to get one useful picture out of the 300D. I start to understand why the 30D cost more







I've found a lot of things to like about the 30D. The batteries last about twice as long as they did on the 300D, start up time is instantanous (useful for wildlife!) and it focusses well regardless of the light. I may have only purchased this camera because of a misunderstanding with an error message (which was really telling me that the Tamron was on strike ) but I've no regrets

EDIT 10:30pm One more picture from tonight



There was an interesting encounter between Chiara and the Old Dogfox this evening. She is gradually learning about the diversity of life in this world (squirrels, badgers, foxes - she seems well rounded, although I don't blame her for slipping her leash in astonishment when she met her first cow the other day ).

Being a shepherd, she is very protective of "her" pack and territory, but I was pleased by her lack of aggression towards the Old Dogfox. She put her muzzle through the fence and he backed away up the garden a little, perhaps surprised by the attention, but she did not growl or otherwise try to order the fox away.