The unthinkable has happened - I've finally got a picture of the One-Eyed Dogfox!
Despairing of capturing him with my DSLR, I set the one and only working trail camera on the lawn facing the birdtable's legs. I've seen him there on several occasions scavenging for fallen seed and digging up worms, and sure enough he made an appearance this evening!
The trail scout's camera has 3.1 megapixels and I had it set on its day + flash mode.
The Survivor Vixen is also still coming regularly - and, perhaps significantly, she is often in the One-Eyed Dogfox's company. I haven't seen the Old Dogfox since Oct 21st, but I strongly suspect that he's just shifted his personal route away from the garden. I don't think he'd get the best of a serious fight with this powerful newcomer. __
No opportunities to get my main camera out today, but here's a picture of a blue tit from Saturday
PS I'm currently making my local wildlife photo-lists easier to explore. Some are still offline but the bird and mammal lists are up there now. (I hope to continue to add new species to both as time goes by, and I know for sure we have more species of bat than just the pipistrelle!)
The Survivor Vixen is busy, for sure, playing camera tag with me It works like this:
I see the SV at the back of the garden. I grab the camera. The SV tires of sitting still and vanishes. I put the camera down. She returns. I pick up camera. She goes for a wander. I put the camera down...
And occasionally, after a lot of patience on my part and a lot of wandering on hers, she strikes a nice pose.
She is a very restless fox. In truth, she always has been. She certainly doesn't object to being photographed per se, but she comes and goes so quickly that I either have to be extraordinary fast or be waiting with camera already set up in order to catch her.
The squirrels are busy, collecting walnuts and conkers and other delicacies of the season.
Luna is busy, changing shape - waxing in the skies as more of the disk is illuminated. With a good telescope you can see the same effect on Venus and even Mercury as the inner planets orbit the Sun.
And I am busy (or at least, I will be tomorrow) - the one working trail camera has a task to do
I mentioned a few days back that the roe deer are changing colour with the seasons. Unfortunately, these relatively small forest deer aren't the easiest creatures to photograph...well, usually!
This morning I went out early with Kelly, thinking of frost and clear morning skies.
It quickly became clear that I wasn't the only one out and about!
This is an adult roe deer doe and she's fully decked out in her winter coat, which is much greyer than the summer one.
I had to shoot slow because of the light conditions in the shade, but she was content to stand still and watch me for a minute or so. Eventually another dog walker came up the lane and the dog was coughing a little - that seemed to unnerve her.
Apart from the deer, I also saw two foxes - one of whom was, I'm quite sure, the Old Dogfox! I didn't get a clear view of his face but his profile is pretty distinctive. He was out in a residential road and didn't give me a chance to photograph him. I wonder if he has succeeded the garden to the One-eyed Dogfox after all?
The trail camera should give hints; for once, it's working fine, but as I suspected it's not quite in the right place (always some trial and error with this). It did get this little 20 second clip of the Survivor Vixen preening herself. I had it on night settings so it uses an infrared beam; hence the greyscale image.
The foxes have been very active this evening but none of them seem to want to make life easy for me!
The Survivor Vixen was back to her normal teasing state of mind early in the evening. I got this shot of her with my DSLR ("camera one") at full zoom right at the back of the garden (about ninety feet away from the patio doors, where I was stationed). Note the leaning tree just in front of her hiding place...
That tree now has a trail camera ("camera two") hanging on it!
I should add that this is the only one of my two trail cameras that I still trust This is the one that got nosed by a bear back in Canada; it was my other camera, the older one, that kept missing cougars and corrupting cards. I'm not entirely sure it's in the best position but I'll experiment over the course of the next week or so.
Camera number three, however, was most useful this evening. Upon seeing the One-Eyed Dogfox walking swiftly across the lawn, I didn't even attempt to pick up my DSLR, but instead grabbed the handycam. I'm glad I did as he gave me no opportunity for a still shot.
Here he is, and also another male fox with the most enormous brush who seemed to be following him. Seems like we're up to three males in the territory again - I wonder how long that will last!
On a completely different note, a fourth camera arrived in the post today It's a microscope that you can connect directly to a computer. I should have some fun with this but alas no time this evening
But I have added this picture, and a couple of others, to my APN album
It works like this:
with the most enormous brush who seemed to be following him. Seems like we're up to three males in the territory again - I wonder how long that will last!
