In the garden

The trees are weighed down with cherries. Birds are gobbling them up and a family of foxes is enjoying what falls to the ground.



There are two young foxes...



They seem pretty happy wandering around in daylight.
 

Meanwhile, birds are coming to the pond for water.



I was surprised to see such a nice-looking Broad-bodied Chaser in July

Early-nesting Bumblebees went mad for the thyme flowers.

 

Footprints in the snow

Badger and fox prints on my way to work.





photos taken with iPhone 4S

An autumn's day... in August

Red Admiral

Common Darter

Common Darters mating

Migrant Hawker

Young fox in the garden

What happened to summer?

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM

Wily fox devours... birdseed

Foxes have had a terrible press here recently. This one wouldn't have said boo to a goose. It was too busy snuffling around for dropped birdseed under our feeders. I had to make dying rabbit squeaky noises to get it to look up, which it did - briefly - and then carried on.

photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM

Fantastic Mr (or Mrs) Fox

A fox came into the garden this morning to eat some of our birdfood. It stayed so long it seemed stupid not to sketch it. So I did.

When it arrived, it was only just getting light outside. It's horribly foggy today as well. I watched through the telescope and it looked like a black and white fox.

The fox sat down and ate, and watched Darren making his cup of coffee in the kitchen. And stayed and ate some more. Its luxuriant white-tipped tail brushed the ground. And eventually, there was enough light to see that it really was red and - of course - very beautiful.

I got my sketchbook and a pencil and started work. Fortunately, foxes have vaguely triangular faces, and triangular ears. So I'm quite pleased with the sketches, since I haven't done much drawing for a long time.

Just when I was embellishing one of my fox-doodles, I looked up and it had gone.

photo taken with Canon EOS 30D

Brought to you by the colour orange

A young Red Fox which appeared today and seemed to be munching on sunflower seeds just like our regular Badger does.


A Robin at that awkward inbetween stage - half speckly juvenile, half grown-up orange adult.

Why do people say Robins are red?


photos taken with Canon Powershot A640 or Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM

Beds birding

Started in Cambridgeshire, at Croydon. It's the highest point in the county and you can walk along the ridge, with nice views across the border into Bedfordshire.

Skylark

The abandoned medieval village of Clopton

A fox was hunting rabbits among the earthworks

Next stop, Broom gravel pits. Move along now, there's nothing for you here...

Yellowhammer

A pair of Oystercatchers fed along one of the pits. The bird not in this photo was ringed

Next, Pegsdon Hills, a Wildlife Trust reserve.

Peacocks were quite plentiful on the blossom

Meadow Pipits were in song all over the hill

Ring Ouzel record shot for Darren...

They have some nice sheep grazing the slopes

Triangulation point

Unusual subject matter for a pub sign nearby

Dog-violet

Sand Martins back at their colony along Meadow Lane

Ringed Plover at Willington

bird/insect photos taken with Canon EOS 30D, EF 300mm f/4L IS USM

macro/landscape photos taken with Nikon Coolpix 995 + Leica Apo Televid 77 with 20x eyepiece