Having seen, sketched and blogged a cat being mobbed by magpies a few days ago, this morning Jim pointed out there was a fox on our garden wall and it was being harried by two magpies. One of them is the black and white blur above it!We got this house almost 10 years ago and this is the first time we've seen a fox in the garden. We've seen traces - things like old bones etc. so we knew there was likely to be one that visited.
I got out my camera and although it was in continuous shot mode it wasn't in the right state for focussing on moving objects... So much to learn... These were the best out of 48 shots!
And of course I had to crop right in as I do not have a long telephoto... thank goodness for mega-pixels.
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13 comments:
I had to laugh at your "best of 48 shots." It's so like me. What DID we do before we went digital? And there is always more to learn, or a better camera to buy.
A fox on the garden wall is very exciting. We have had a raccoon (my only pictures were of his backside, and even those were blurry) and a coyote (no time to get the camera) in our back yard since we have lived here.
Nan - I think I'm trying to get shots I'd never have reached for before - its very freeing knowing that I can just ditch them all if they don't work!
Brilliant to have seen a raccoon and coyote even if no photos! We don't get either here, unless they escape from a zoo... :-)
Over Christmas everyone except me saw a kestrel out of the dining room window (I was in the kitchen). After that one of Jim's nephews reported seeing all sorts of unlikely birds during our meal... "a vulture but it could have been a robin" and an eagle... at least he knew better than to claim a pterodactyl!
How exciting! My husband saw a coyote in our back garden once (I've seen them in the street) and I've seen racoons and herons. This is a particularly healthy-looking fox. You must have a large rodent population in the area. Thanks for sharing these.
Andrea - yes it was - and in what passes for broad daylight at the moment - more like broad greylight...
Bristol has lots of foxes (reputedly) and they scavenge from the scavenging from bins, bird tables, compost heaps etc. But I looked up what they eat and amongst them were frogs... so I hope the fox hasn't been staking out our pond... we spent several hours today clearing it of excess plants in the hope that most of the life will be hibernating either in the depths or elsewhere. (It needed clearing before the frog's start to spawn in February.)
I absolutely love foxes, but I also like magpies, don't know which I'd rout for. Perhaps the fox, because as it was 2 against 1, it was the underdog!
We are defnitely getting more suburban foxes around here - and they are getting quite tame and also cheeky.
Johnnynorms - this one was very bold to be out at 10 to 10 this mornning!
I love it when wildlife just walks into your life like that. All the more special where you live, because there probably isn't a ton of wildlife like there is out here in rural BC. The fox is super cute! Do you think it's an omen or anything?
Look at his eyes! He has no concern about the magpie in his eyes ... focusing on you. He is beautiful!
Wow! What an amazing shot! That blurry thing above his head makes it look sort of magical! You are lucky to be able to see foxes - all I have is racoons and opossums (and of course, zillions of squirrels) : {
These are beautiful escpecially the 2nd one. I guess you're enjoying your new camara huh?
For me, foxes are exotic. I've never seen one in real life. Do they attack people?
p.s. what's that white blur zig zagging over the fox in the first pic?
Wandering Coyote - I have wondered if it means anything - after all its the second mobbing I've seen recently... but I don't know that it does!
Anonymous - he didn't look at me most of the time but he was aware that he was being watchd and unfortunately left because of it. I tried to catch him when he was looking at me. And no I don't think he was much bothered by the magpies but they were acting as a loud warning system.
Rose - thanks. We got one or two squirrels not zillions!
Janey - yes I'm enjoying it but also still don't really understand what I'm doing - how's yours?
GG - the black and white blue is one of the magpies. Foxes run from people - they are more likely to get one's chickens - when I lived in the country as a child we lost lots of chickens to foxes.
wow he is truly beautiful! almost looks like the fox in the Narnia movie...
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