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Wednesday 21 September 2016

Close encounters of the Foxy kind!

In my life, I've had very few encounters with wild foxes, which has disappointed me greatly to be honest! They are probably my favourite British mammal, our only wild 'dog'.
 They get a bad press, which is undeserved. They're a predatory species, as are all dogs and cats, of course they will kill if they get the opportunity! It's nature! They are not evil, they are just surviving!
  Evil is a capability of humans only.
Anyway, recently I found myself at Apex Park in Burnham on Sea in Somerset trying to photograph a Wren that was playing hide and seek with me in the little wood between the lake and the coastal path. I was creeping about so as not to disturb it when all of a sudden a Fox appeared 3 metres in front of me!! It was relaxed and sniffing about in the ditch and didn't know I was there at first! I froze, luckily my camera was already up in photographic mode due to the Wren, the Fox soon became aware of me and turned to look right at me! I got the photo!
   It was a brief moment, but it seemed like forever, and it was magical! The Fox soon slunk away, but my day had been made!
  Funnily enough, a few days later in the countryside on the Somerset Levels,  I was chatting to an Enviromental Agency guy that I was working with about a Fox we had both seen a few months previously when I didn't have my camera with me, when I turned around and saw another Fox cross the road 50 meters away! I ran to my van and grabbed my camera and got some distant shots of it as it crossed the field beside the road! Amazing!
  I love Foxes!!

Below are my Fox pics, plus more nature shots from September, including a Heron struggling with an Eel, an escaped Cockatiel, Brazen Rats, beautiful Starlings and a rare Black Tern;

Fox




^Above^ - Close, closer, closer and closer still....the Apex Park Fox! (I only got one pic!)












^Above^ - A gorgeous Fox a few days later near Burtle on the Somerset Levels.













^Above^ - Heron with an Eel at RSPB Greylake.... it struggled to get it down for a while!!


^Above^ - Canada Goose at Chew Valley Lake.


^Above^ - Buzzard on a hay bale between Bridgwater and Westonzoyland, Somerset.


^Above^ - Sparrowhawk overhead at RSPB Greylake.





^Above^ - Black Headed Gulls at Chew Valley Lake.


^Above^ - Mute Swan at Chew Valley Lake.





^Above^ - Magpies at Apex Park.


^Above^ - Woodpigeon at Apex Park.


^Above^ - The elusive Wren at Apex Park..... thanks to it, I encountered the Fox!


^Above^ - Chiffchaff at Apex Park.


^Above^ - Cormorant at Backwell Lake in North Somerset.


^Above^ - Cormorant at Apex Park.




^Above^ - Goldfinch at Apex Park.







^Above^ - Great Crested Grebes at Apex Park.







^Above^ - Brazen Rats in broad daylight at Apex Park.










^Above^ - Young Herring Gulls at Apex Park.





^Above^ - Grey Heron flying towards Hinkley Point Nuclear Power Station, away from Apex Park.



^Above^ - Redshanks on the muddy banks of the Parrott estuary near Apex Park.



^Above^ - Woodpigeons at Apex Park. (Young one, bottom pic)


^Above^ - Teazel at Apex Park.


^Above^ - Mute Swan family at Catcott Lows nature reserve in Somerset.


^Above^ - White Butterfly at RSPB Greylake.



^Above^ - Cormorants at Shapwick Heath nature reserve in Somerset.


^Above^ - Heron, Mute Swan, Lapwing and Coots at Shapwick Heath.


^Above^ - Mute Swans at Shapwick Heath.


^Above^ - Record shot of a very distant rare Black Tern at Noahs Lake, Shapwick Heath.














^Above^ - Starlings in my home Somerset village.













^Above^ - Black Headed Gulls at Backwell Nature Reserve in North Somerset.


^Above^ - Mallard at Chew Valley Lake.


^Above^ - Kestrel right overhead at Bridgwater, Somerset.




^Above^ - A Cockatiel near Hutton in Somerset, obviously an escape, this took me by surprise when I drove past!


^Above^ - Wet dog after jumping in the lake at Apex Park!