The wet weather persists, keeping me - and the foxes - under cover. Occasionally though I think I see a glimpse of blue in the sky and this afternoon I risked the short trip to Rottingdean. I left home in sunshine and arrived a few minutes later in rain. It was intermittent (the winds move it on quickly enough), and I went down to the beach to investigate. It wasn't crowded, but a surprising number of people were out enjoying the bracing sea air; a fair few had cameras too.
It wasn't the sea crashing high into the sea-wall that was attracting the attention of the snappers. It was this... sea foam.
There were piles of the foam scattered along the beach, seemingly migrating in the wind and flying into everything in its path. It was job to keep the camera lens clear. On days like today it's more or less essential to use a filter (easier to clean, and if there is any damage it's a lot cheaper to replace a filter than a lens).
Strange stuff indeed, but naturally occurring. And while that's the most I've ever seen it falls some way short of this example from Australia. Now that's a lot of foam.
With the winds so high the birds were generally keeping away from the shore, though a cormorant wandered in a little closer than they do usually. Cormorant
And yes, I did take a few photos of the sea. I couldn't really not.
Camera note: all shots taken with the Canon 40D and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens and UV filter.
No grand theme today, just some shots taken over the past 24 hours.
I'll start with the hedgehogs, with a shot taken in the early hours of Friday morning. It's not the best shot I've taken, but it's the first with three hogs in the same shot (just). It seems that somewhere over the summer we have acquired a new youngster. Hedgehog family
The little one was being very cute, more or less hanging on the tail of its mother much in the manner of duckling.
Next I'll set the location for today's sea-bird shots... St Paul's Cathedral
Yes I was back in London, for two meetings. Thankfully both were on the South Bank of the river just a short 10 minute walk apart. Cormorant with catch
Lift-off
Those were taken just before my first meeting. The next was taken at lunchtime, at Bankside (just by the Tate Modern). Lesser(?) Black-Backed Gull
The most unusual sighting though was overhead. I caught a glimpse of a bird that didn't look 'right'. It wasn't a gull, or a cormorant or a pigeon. It was what I think must be the first raptor I've spotted in the centre of London. I am much more used to seeing these in downland or coastal areas, so it was something of a surprise. The photo was grabbed and is a full-size crop. My first thought was a juvenile peregrine (they nest at the Tate Modern and the very direct flight/swoop over the Thames seemed appropriate), but it is also suspiciously kestrel-like. I don't have a confirmed i.d. for this one. Raptor over the Thames
And so to the garden. Bold was back. Her leg is improving (though she still carries it a lot of the time); but she seems to have acquired a second injury, this time around her right eye (it was partially closed). I couldn't see any obvious damage, and the photos I got are inconclusive as to the extent. The Bold Vixen with injured right eye
Scratching fox Camera note: all shots taken with the Canon 40D. The daytime shots were all with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens. The hedgehogs were photographed with the Sigma 105mm F2.8 EX DG macro lens, while the pictures of the vixen were taken with the EF70-300mm 4.5-5.6 DO IS lens.
I don't need much of an excuse to head out with the camera, but today - for what it's worth - I did have an excuse. I wanted to test out the 40D which I got back from being repaired this morning. It had suffered sea water damage while I was photographing the seals at Ramsey Island. Numerous parts have been replaced, and once I'd set it up the way I like it I headed off to give it decent work out.
I started out on the Downs, photographing fields of maize.
There weren't many birds about (no kestrels ), though a small group of (meadow) pipits were posing on the fence posts along the side of the local golf course. Meadow pipit
Reckoning that I'd have more to photograph by the sea (there's always something happening by the sea) I made my way over to Rottingdean. No fulmars at all at the moment, and the gulls were relatively quiet (for gulls). There were some boats out on the water, and an intrepid swimmer was slowly making their way along the coast.
I was looking out to sea when the first real sighting made an appearance. A cormorant was heading in. Usually they stay parallel to the shore, and at some distance; but the tide was in and this one was evidently coming in to see what pickings there were.
That shot is typically the distance I see them. I kept the camera in line and continued photographing until I got this. Cormorant
It finally came to rest a short way out, settling in the almost still sea.
Encounters like that are extremely satisfying, and by the time I'd finished photographing the cormorant (it slowly drifted away from the shore with successive dives), I was ready to head back home. When I saw this. Juvenile peregrine
It's a juvenile peregrine, almost certainly from the brood at Sussex Heights. It was keeping unusually low for a peregrine, much to the consternation of the pigeons, gulls and jackdaws which adopted an evasion tactic of scattering in every direction. I lost sight of the peregrine as it rounded the cliffs, but not before I'd taken several more shots.
The bird has been ringed, so with a bit of persistence a definite identification should be possible. It looks like 34 to me, but it's not the same '34' as I reported in a previous post. The ring is on the other leg. Peregrine ring #34?
Update: I'm now leaning to it being one of the Chichester Cathedral peregrines (apparently West Sussex uses black rings).
On the home front the garden is still very active. I'll do a proper update soon, but for now I'll just include a brief encounter between two of the foxes.
Camera note: all shots taken with the Canon 40D. Everything bar the landscape was taken with the EF 400mm f/5.6L USM lens. The maize was photographed with the EF 24-105 F4L IS USM lens (due for repair imminently!).
And yes, the cormorants were there. Not in great numbers, but I watched a pair of them diving for fish and eventually caught this sequence.
That was a total of five seconds from dive to swallow! Camera note: all cormorant shots taken with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens. The view of the river was taken with the EF 17-40mm 1:4L USM lens.
Click to enlarge
), though a small group of (meadow) pipits were posing on the fence posts along the side of the local golf course.
WIDGETIZE