A Bright Sunshiny Day…

…though not first thing in the morning it wasn’t!  After leaving the house first thing I immediately retreated back in to retrieve a jacket.  The weather forecast may have been saying sunny, warm weather but for now it was cold and grey. I hadn’t really planned to photograph anything particular to day, as so often is the case with me, I just wanted to get out and enjoy the forecasted summers day.  I did however, hoped to see a Fox, it seems rare that I see them nowadays, but first the air was full of competing bird songs and so there was some opportunity to grab the odd picture though many of the birds were either hidden away in the bushes or just skittish.  A small flock of Goldfinches – one of our more colourful birds – stopped briefly before flying on, while a Meadow Pipit with a mouth full of food perched, calling for its young and another just just seemed content to make its presence known, chasing off any intruders.

A change of pace and a look to see if there were any Foxes about.  I thought with the time of year they might be more active during the day with cubs to feed.  Also with the grass long, it would give them plenty of cover in the daytime.  After a short time of waiting I could see movement in the distance but it wasn’t a Fox, rather, lots of little Rabbit ears popping up above the grass.  Over the years I’ve often seen Foxes here in the daytime but not Rabbits even though I knew from the occasional sightings and traces they were around.  Now it seems a reversal in habits between them.  Maybe the Rabbits got wise and thought they would be safer during the day if the Foxes were now nocturnal.

Rabbit out in the heavily dew socked grass

The Rabbits seemed quite relaxed.  Every now and then, a head would pop up and take a look around.  The sound of my camera taking a picture would result in their ears suddenly pointing in my direction, like little radars.  I don’t know how a Rabbit feels, but moving around feeding in long grass must be like us in a dense jungle knowing there could be a Tiger just metres away! Fortunately the Rabbits didn’t have to rely just on their large pair of radars on their heads.  A couple of Magpies were nesting nearby and these are a great early warning for any predators about.  Flying overhead they literally get a ‘birds eye view’ and can see any Foxes around.  In the past they’ve always been a good help in my finding a Fox as their alarm call is very distinctive and in fact last year I found one in exactly this way.  On a number of occasions on this day the Magpies would suddenly become very agitated, the pair of them flying around and surrounding an unknown intruder.  Unfortunately I could never see what it was that was getting them worked up as it always seemed ‘over there’ or in an inaccessible overgrown area.

Alarmed Magpie

Checking to see what all the noise is about

One Rabbit braving the open

Eventually, after over three hours in the now hot midday sun, I decided to follow up on another Magpie alarm call, but all was quite by the time I reached the spot.  I decided to wait in the hope that the ‘Fox’ would return but the air was full of a nearby Aspen tree releasing its seed pods into the air which (see left), along with the many flies in this particularly damp area, made it very uncomfortable. With soaked muddy feet, fluffy white seed being breathed in and countless flies determined to drive me nuts I decided to move on.  After a short distance I came across a sure sign that a Fox had indeed been here.  A patch of the long grass had been flattened where the Fox had obviously lay, in a south facing spot no doubt to enjoy the early morning sunshine.  Had it been there before when the Magpies were alarm calling?  It was certainly very recently flattened. This is something I have seen Foxes do on a number of occasions and despite being often thought of as nocturnal, they obviously like to catch a ‘few rays’.  One time whilst walking through a wood, I spotted out of the corner of my eye what I thought was a ginger cat sleeping in a shaft of sunlight coming through the trees. A second glance showed it was a Fox, curled up nose to tail asleep, just about five metres away!  Having not seen me I crouched down onto the ground, looking down as I did so.  In the few seconds it took for me to do so and then looking back up, it was gone!  It didn’t make a sound and I didn’t see it go, it just disappeared.

A sign that a Fox had done a bit of ‘sun bathing’

Above was another sign of a regular Fox presence.  Although not obvious from the photo, I’ve marked a regularly used path, one of many I could see on the day.  Worth a few more visits over the coming months I think.

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A Summer Meadow

After a few false starts, it looks like summer has finally arrived this weekend with a decent spell of sunny, warm weather.  Where better to go then than to find a nice quite spot in a grass meadow, covered in wild flowers and enjoy the sunshine.  A walked around a number of areas before settling on one location that had a number of Meadow Pipits busy feeding their young, all within their distinct territories. The long grass made it difficult to see any of the birds but for the chirping and the parents bringing in food, briefly hovering over a spot whilst they locate their offspring.

My presence, though at a respectful distance, didn’t seem to detour the constant onslaught of food offerings being brought in for the young and in fact, both parents and young wondered in so close to me on a couple of occasions, that I couldn’t focus on them.  Most of the time however, they couldn’t be spotted in the long grass and surprisingly the youngsters kept moving position by flying high in the air then back down three or four metres away from where the parents last fed them.  It seemed a way of competing for the attention of the parents but ultimately made it more difficult for them to find them.  From what I could make out there must have been around three offspring in my location.

From a photographic point of view, I wasn’t having it all my own way.  To try and fill in the frame with such a small bird, I had the converter attached, slowing down focusing speed.  This was compounded by their choosing a mostly southerly location, so I was largely shooting towards the direction of the sun which in turn would regularly go behind the clouds just as a good photo opportunity presented itself.  Along with the slower focusing speed, initial locking on was also a problem.  Looking through a viewfinder of a focal length of 700mm at a small bird that seems intent in constantly moving, plus my focus limiter having to be set to full.  Add to this the exposure difficulties and hand holding the lens for long periods of time – required due to the constant changes in direction, location and height.  It was certainly challenging. The photographs then aren’t very special in quality – disappointing considering the opportunity.  The only way around this would have been to move to a more southerly location so I would have the sun behind me and also to have got close enough to take off the converter, but both of these actions would have undoubtedly disturbed them. After a while, (and to give me arms a rest) I moved to another location where there was some taller plants in and around the grass where the parents were using as a stopping off point to check for the young, giving me a more settled photographic opportunity.  Though still using the converter, the images were a bit better in quality as they moved consistently from three different perches of which I could pre focus on.  Lighting too was from a better direction now though my arms and shoulders were aching after a couple of hours of, not just hand holding the lens, but the constant moving and twisting around.

In the end aching limbs and tiredness, meant I had to, reluctantly, call it a day.  All in all, a nice day of weather and photo opportunity and a lot of images to look through, though most were to end up being deleted but a few stood out and were salvaged and I’ll work on those to put up on my website.

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