Views from My Window – Foxes

I live in a semi-rural location near Fair Oak. There are pros and cons to everything in life and, for me, getting up in the dark to travel to work is definitely one of the cons. I use public transport and walk to the nearest bus stop, or sometimes the railway station when the weather’s decent.

Grumpy tweet

A few days ago I posted a photo on Twitter showing the track I walk along as part of my daily commute. The track is full of pot-holes, is extremely muddy and – to be honest – it was a grumpy tweet.

The snapshot showed mud, water, and a moment in time. It didn’t even hint at some of the magical moments I’ve also experienced in the same place over the last few years.

I’m not normally grumpy on Twitter, and to mitigate my grump I went on to share a few of my favourite pictures taken in the same vicinity. They included a deer ambling in front of a pony, a fawn with its mum, a fox cub, and a fox inside a bird table.

Making a connection

I’ve been enjoying reading the posts on Chandler’s Ford Today for a while. Fascinating articles, on a wide range of subjects, written by people living in-and-around Chandler’s Ford (which is just down the road from where I live).

I was delighted to be asked to share a blog post about open data a week or ago, a week or ago, and when Janet spotted my tweets and invited me to write a photo blog post as well, I jumped at the chance.

Chandler’s Ford Today meets WeeklyBlogClub

I’m doubly-pleased, as it doubles as my contribution to this week’s weeklyblogclub (run by another Janet). If you haven’t encountered WeeklyBlogClub before, the clue is in the name. It’s just returned after a well-earned break, and is well worth following. It’s a friendly group of bloggers, who tend to work in or around the public or voluntary sectors.

The bigger picture

I’ve taken thousand of photos of the local wildlife over the last few years. Often – usually – it’s completely unplanned, and I’ve just grabbed my camera as I’ve spotted an animal walk past the house or do something that’s grabbed my attention.

Here are a few of my favourite photos of foxes. Like them or loathe them, they’re certainly characters.

We returned home having been away for a few days and looked out of the kitchen window. Peeking out from the roots of an oak tree was a tiny cub.

The cub was one of several. As they grew, they would accompany the mother wherever she went, frequently demanding feeding.

This little chap – presumably wanting to out-do his parent inside the bird table – ran away with an entire bird feeder.

There was lots of fun and games directly in front of the house. I always smile when I look at this shot of a cub skidding to a halt.

Fox skidding to a halt

Sometimes, games end in tears

I usually take photos with a digital SLR camera, which can take quite a few frames a second to capture movement. I experimented* with a tiny clip-on camera called Narrative Clip. It takes a shot every 30 seconds automatically. I left it in the garden with some pieces of bread near-by. The two photos below are examples – they aren’t great, but it gave some different angles and perspectives.

Foxes hunt in all weathers, even in a snow storm.

It never occurred to me that foxes go fishing, until I saw this…

This last picture shows two cubs underneath a giant cedar tree. They are both watching a deer, which you can just see in the foreground.

That’s it for this post. If you’ve made it this far, I hope you enjoyed some of the photos. If you’d like to see more of different wildlife, I’d be happy to share them here.

* Note
I’m very wary of the privacy issues around tiny wearable cameras, so don’t use mine very much. As an aside, I conducted another experiment at an event I co-organise, called BluelightCamp.

I used the Narrative Clip camera to create a brief time-lapse video showing local artist Matthew Buck of Drawnalism at work. It’s here. Enjoy!