My last post was about how quiet the wood had been recently, not quiet as opposed to noisy but quiet as in lack of wildlife. Last week started off the same, I was in the hide for about two hours and all I saw was a few Magpies and the occasional small bird, then the buzzard flew in, grabbed a morsel and flew off straight away. I then heard Ravens in the distance, they are usually about but rarely make an appearance. They then flew in and landed in the trees nearby, I did not see them but you can hear them, they make quite a noise with their wings similar to a mute swan.  Suddenly one flew in and again grabbed a morsel and was off.

Tripod or not? I have used a tripod in the hide but I think the disadvantages out weigh the advantages. The advantages are that it is set up and ready so that when something appears you do not have to pick the camera up and then position it, which not only takes a few seconds but can also scare off the animal or bird you are hoping to photograph, foxes are particularly easy to frighten off. Also it saves your arms aching. However it is not that manoeuvrable and the wildlife does not always appear in the exact spot that the camera is pointing at, so I usually have the camera on my lap or the floor and then position it when something turns up.

However this time the Buzzard and the the Raven were too quick for me, I did get one poor shot of the Raven as it flew off. So after about two and a half hours I was almost ready to pack it in. Then the fox turned up, this was the female, I was ready for her as the Magpies usually kick up quite a racket when a fox is in the area.  The fox usually approaches very cautiously and always seems to be looking straight at me. I have the camera set on silent but it is not silent, it is just less noisy than the normal shutter and you cannot take as many frames per second. The answer is a mirrorless camera but I think I am too long in the tooth for that change now. On a normal day the fox will hear the shutter and stop approaching and then may turn tail and be off. This day though it was raining and the wind was blowing towards me, so I don’t think it could pick out the noise of the shutter. It came back and forth carrying off food no doubt for young ones nearby. Then a dog fox appeared, I have seen this one before it has a distinctive look with a large scar round one eye and it is quite rough looking with patches of almost bald fur and you can see some ticks attached to the skin in these areas, Not a prize specimen

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Then they were both there together and a bit of sparring took place but then they posed nicely for me to take their photo, I don’t think they did this to oblige me, it just happened.

On a second visit later in the week I was blessed by the Buzzard coming in and remaining on the ground for some time so I not only took photos but also somw short video sequences and this was followed yet again by Mr and Mrs fox although they were never both present at the same time.

So all in all quite a good week, I am hopeful that the foxes will bring along their cubs sometime, last year the same two adults were around but if they did bring the youngsters along I was never present when it occurred. Fingers crossed for this year.