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Everything is Permuted

Tales of a South Downs fox... and other ramblings

Posts tagged with "partridge"

In the fields...

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It's raining heavily right now, but this morning the skies were blue and the sun bright. I headed for the fields near work. The yellowhammers were once again busy in the tree tops, flitting busily up and down along the fringe of woodland that runs along the path between the fields.
Yellowhammer

I'd gone in search of the roe deer. They weren't in the higher field, but on my way back to the car I spotted an 'inconsistency' along the hedgerow on the far side. The sun was facing towards me, and the shapes were difficult to discern against the dark shade. A little Photoshop work was needed to bring this shot up to scratch.
Roe deer

At lunchtime it was still bright, but cooler than I'd anticipated. I must remember that winter sunshine is deceptively weak. Some rooks were out in the fields, but mainly it was quiet. The cattle have been moved to new pastures. The trees have shed their leaves as winter approaches.
Downland scene

As I was nearing the brow of the hill, two birds came into view. Low down, on the grass. A pair of partridges.


I watched as they crossed the path and disappeared behind the distant slope.
Red-legged partridge

I'm still monitoring nightly activity via the trail cam. The badger has been back, and early this morning an inquisitive squirrel was chasing birds. This clip though is from a couple of nights ago, and shows two of the foxes interacting.


Nature Blog Network
Camera note: all shots taken with the Canon 40D and EF 400mm f/5.6L USM lens.

Two more foxes, a partridge, a hedgehog and a tadpole update!

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Ok, this is a rapid bit of catching up. After yesterday's excitement I headed back to the fields this morning. It was dull and very little was about, but as I was heading in to work along a country lane I noticed two unusual birds trotting along the side of the road. I followed them for a short way until they decided to cross the road in front of me. I stopped and grabbed a shot through the car window. It's not great, but sufficient to identify this as a partridge, most likely the red-legged variety.

Partridge

I worked through lunch, so have very few shots from the day, but this evening spent a little bit of time in the garden, photographing the tadpoles. They are abundant, massed on the surface of the pond.

tadpoles

tadpoles

While I was peering into the weed, I saw what appears to be a pair of near albino tadpoles, which are extremely rare. I certainly didn't notice any white spawn, so these may not be full-fledge albinos. And the odds of finding them again in all that mass are vanishingly low. Anyway here's the photo.

albino tadpolesAlbino tadpoles?

Later, while attempting to watch for foxes we had just about given up when I made one last check at the top of the garden and saw this beauty. She hadn't triggered the trail cam, but was obviously enjoying her sultana feast.

Hedgehog

As for the trail cam, last night's footage contained much of the usual clips apart from this sequence which confirmed my suspicions about a pair of foxes. I've posted this via YouTube for a change (Vimeo is playing up).



Now I just have to work out who is who from all the other bits and pieces I'm gathering at the moment.
Nature Blog Network
Camera note: the partridge was taken with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens, the tadpoles with the Sigma 105mm F2.8 EX DG macro, and the hedgehog with the EF 24-105 F4L IS USM. The trail cam footage was captured with the Stealth Trail Camera GL80.
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