Everything is Permuted

I haven't posted since Tuesday, a combination of too many photos to sort through, too long lingering in the garden until the early hours (but no badger), and too much time catching up with some other parts of my life. But it's been a good week overall and I'll try to keep this moderately coherent.

Wednesday
Not much wildlife to report on as I spent most of the day in London and had precious little time to explore the nature havens of the city. And there are plenty, from the major parks through to the small squares that are scattered throughout central London. My only photo opportunities were outside mainline railway stations amid signs saying 'Do not feed the pigeons'. Well I don't; but if the sign is there, well so are the pigeons. And they were looking splendid.



In the evening we had a brief visit from the bold vixen, the one seen in Tuesday's post.



Thursday
A couple of interesting sightings. I was wandering through one of the car park areas at work and noticed a lively thrush zipping to and fro from one of the trees. She had a nest in the higher branches. Now nesting birds always present a dilemma. To photograph or not? A number of species are protected by law and photographing their nesting spaces requires a licence, so in some instances photographing a nesting bird is straightforwardly illegal. The purpose of the law is to help prevent disturbing endangered species during the breeding season, and that's a principle worth extending in general to all wildlife breeding areas (birds or otherwise). If the site is disturbed there's a risk of young being abandoned or, in the case of the more rare species, being vandalized or raided. Thrushes don't come within the legislation, and the site was in an area with heavy human traffic, so I did take a couple of shots from a safe distance. But the clear rule must be to avoid any possible disturbance of the bird or its habitat.



There's nothing to stop you photographing feeding blackbirds though, and I took this brief sequence of a male blackbird and a somewhat reluctant worm:





In the evening we had a brief visit from the old dog fox.



Friday
A quiet day all told, but as I was leaving work I stumbled upon a slightly bemused duck who had got lost and couldn't find where it had parked.



Ever the kind soul, I pointed it in the direction of the nearby pond ('Just over there, through the woods'):



And so to the evening where I again had the pleasure of two foxes appearing in the garden. The first fox to appear was the nicked-ear vixen (not the same one as Tuesday, that was the bold vixen). At first she was fairly relaxed, but while I was taking photos (I'd put down a small amount of food as reward) her demeanour changed. Her ears went back, and she crouched into a low squat. At first I wondered whether I had startled her:



But it wasn't anything I had done. The next frame reveals the cause of her caution.



And shortly after, while the dog fox was attacking the shrubs again, she displayed more submissive behaviour. So it seems that the relationship between the foxes is beginning to develop a pattern. The dog fox and the bold vixen seem to be a pair, with the nicked ear vixen either having the role of subordinate vixen or being essentially an outsider. I tend to the former as for all her submissive behaviour, and his bravado with the shrubs, he studiously ignored her for the several minutes they were both sharing the garden.



So that concludes Friday. As for Saturday (today) you'll have to be patient. I took close to 400 photos today and am nowhere near ready to post any yet!

Camera note: all shots (except the foxes and the pigeon) taken with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens. The foxes were photographed with the EF 24-105 F4L IS USM lens. The pigeon was captured with the EF70-300mm 4.5-5.6 DO IS lens