Everything is Permuted

After the recent diversions it's back to two of my favourites: kestrels and foxes.

The kestrel was a bit of a surprise. I spotted it near the car park at work this morning and followed it as it tree-hopped along the edge of the woods.
Kestrel against the trees

When I finally got close enough for a reasonable shot I realized I'd stumbled upon a youngster of only a few months. It wasn't keen on being photographed and I kept my distance so this is cropped quite heavily. Pretty little thing though. The adult was nearby, circling just beyond some trees.
Young kestrel

I checked out the local pond at lunchtime, but there was no sign of the injured duck. I'll go back next week to see if it is still around (it may already have been rescued as there are a number of regular duck feeders there, and the pond is on the edge of a quiet village green).

While I was there I did manage (easily) my best shots yet of a house martin. Capturing these in flight is on a par with photographing swifts. They twist, turn and swoop ceaselessly and at speed. Two shots from about 50 is decent hit rate in my book
House martin

House martin, pond skimming

This evening though belongs to the foxes. While I was typing the first part of this entry we heard a noise outside. Two cubs were play-fighting on the patio just outside the window One shot off almost immediately, and the second retreated to the rear of the garden (the trail cam will have some footage). No photos, but a joy to see them behaving like that.

Earlier, the bold vixen called by. She was in one of her more quiet moods and sat down on the (wet) grass just a few feet away from me. I ignored the damp, and sat down with her. She's like this occasionally, seemingly just wanting company (or maybe I'm just less hassle than the cubs). This was taken with the lens at 50mm.
The bold vixen

Her eye is virtually healed

Posing for a portrait

Finally a bit of trail cam footage from last night. Six visitors over the course of the night: the bold vixen, a fox cub, a hedgehog, a cat, a badger and (very briefly) a bat. The bat is right at the end. There's also a moth or two in there, but they don't count.



Camera note: the daytime shots all taken with the EF 400mm f/5.6L USM lens; the fox photos were with the EF 24-105 F4L IS USM.

Last night (Friday) we didn't see the foxes, but we could hear them in the early hours. They were making loud territorial calls late into the night. The cause is almost certainly a cat that had been prowling around. We heard the cat eventaully beat a retreat, clattering past the bins, but the fox calls continued for a considerable time after that.

There was no daytime fox activity, though while I was in the garden a sparrowhawk glided at low level across the garden. It was a moment impossible to capture on camera. A pigeon came in low over my shoulder and as I looked up the sparrowhawk was passing just a few feet above me at a height of no more than 15 or 20 feet. Wonderful, but all too brief. It was through the trees the other side of the garden in a blink of an eye.

The smaller birds were active though, and easier to photograph. Chaffinches, greenfinches, starlings and blue tits were among the visitors.
Blue tit

Chaffinch

There was more activity in the evening. One of the newer 'regulars' is a large hedgehog which lurks at the rear of the garden.


And a wood mouse was lurking in the shrubs, taking a break from its tree-dwelling habits for a spot of grooming.



But the star of the evening was the young nicked-ear vixen. She appeared quite late, and didn't stay long before leaping the high fence to continue her night's hunting. She's very active at the moment. It was presumably her calls we could hear last night, and earlier in the week we watched from a window as she prowled the front garden. Here she is in a more sedate moment.



Camera note: Blue tit photographed with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens. Same lens for the chaffinch, but with the 1.4x Pro 300 DG teleconverter, tripod mounted. The hedgehog and wood mouse were taken with the Sigma 105mm F2.8 EX DG macro lens. And for the fox I used the EF 24-105 F4L IS USM.