Everything is Permuted

After the weekend's photo frenzy I thought I could have expected a somewhat quieter day today. After all, it was back to work with a few minutes in the morning, and a shade under an hour at lunchtime. Just goes to show how wrong you can be. And that's left me with a dilemma. Which photo to post?

I thought about this one of the chicks playing tug-of-war over a bone...



Or perhaps it was time for a portrait...



But then at lunchtime I was down at the dew pond, and the broad bodied chasers were excelling themselves. I thought about posting this shot...



But I also rather liked this one as well...



Then again, I nearly got the shot of the day back at home this evening. The nicked-ear vixen had wandered down to the front of the garden. The light was perfect, but the camera wasn't ready so I could only watch as she calmly stole a pair of gardening gloves that had been left near the house and hightailed off into a neighbouring garden with her prize. So not shot there (which at least reduces the choice a bit).

So instead of a fox, and having decided against dragonflies or gulls, I'm going to post this photo as today's choice. It was taken down at the pond at lunchtime. I don't know who was more surprised... me or the...

...stoat!!!

That's my first ever shot of a stoat. It only popped its head out for a moment before turning back into the undergrowth but a beautiful moment.

There are more of the gulls on page 2 of the Herring Gull Chicks album, and several more shots of the chasers in the Broad Bodied Chaser album.

Camera note: all today's photos were taken with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens. I added the Kenko Teleplus 1.4x Pro 300 DG teleconverter for the gull shots.