Garden Foxes (2)

Part 2 of my series of the Fox family currently in our garden. Originally we thought there were only three cubs, but one evening there were four on the lawn, accompanied by Basil. They were very excited, chasing each other around and play fighting. We have always fed Basil our food scraps which are mainly chicken leftovers and bones. I also put out peanuts which the Foxes and Hedgehogs like. But I decided it would be a good idea to get some dog biscuits, which the cubs soon discovered.

I am able to sit or lie on the floor to take the photographs without a hide, which makes things a bit easier, although at the early stages, any movement and they would be off, especially when they started coming up on their own.

Garden Foxes

Just over a year ago a very tame dog Fox started appearing around our garden. He was obviously very used to humans, as he would just sit or lie around the garden, not bothered by us at all.

My wife named him Basil and since then he has become part of the family. During last April it was obvious he was feeding a family of cubs, as he would take any food we gave him off into the woods. We hoped to see his cubs, but it was much later in June and July that we saw some almost fully grown, shy cubs.

This year in March he would take the food off again into the woodland and we soon realised that the den was very close to the house, much closer than we had thought. When April came we could hear what were obviously cubs making little squeaks and yelps. We eventually got a glimpse of three very small cubs playing with Basil in the undergrowth. A week later and they appeared on the lawn and the story goes on. I will do a series of blog posts as the cubs grow and mature. This one is just about Basil though.

 

It's hard work feeding those cubs and he gets very tired. Trying to find a bit of peace and quiet for a quick snooze.

Turtle Doves

A few Turtle Dove images from my trip to Bulgaria last year. Sadly a bird that used to be quite common in the UK but is now scarce. Great to see them and to get some reasonable photos.

More added to my website: Steven Round Bird Photography

Green Woodpeckers

This Summer I spent some time photographing a family of Green Woodpeckers. The adults had three young that they were busy feeding on their main diet of ants. The young birds became independent very quickly which meant that the family were spread out, making photographing them a little tricky.
I was pleased with the results, getting my best ever shots of this species. It is a difficult bird to photograph in this part of the country, so a good result.

Female adult looking for ants

Female adult

Female adult

Juvenile

Juvenile

Male adult feeding on ants

Male adult

Corncrakes

I spent two weeks on The Uists in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland a couple of years ago. Any birder or bird photographer who goes there wants to see or photograph a Corncrake, as they are very localised to these western islands. Usually given away by their distinctive call (which sounds like someone running their finger nails over a comb) However they are not easily seen, sometimes you can get lucky with the birds coming out into the open, but generally they are well hidden. I spent quite some time photographing them with a good amount of success, here's a few.

I have also just added 45 new ones to my website: Steven Round Bird Photography

Ospreys from Mallorca

On my trips to Mallorca I usually see migrating Ospreys and I get a few shots of them perched up or a distant flight shot. A couple of years ago I was fortunate to have one circle around right in front of me, it then landed in the water...again right in front of me. The lake is very shallow and the Osprey took the unusual fishing method of running around after the Grass Carp. It never actually caught one but it did give me some great photo opportunities.

More images on my new website: Steven Round Bird Photography

 

Griffon Vultures

I have just processed my Griffon Vulture images from Spain in 2017, adding 78 new images to my website. Here's a selection of a few of them.

This was one of my favourite species we photographed on the trip, they were real likeable characters. Considering they had travelled a fair distance to the offerings of meat, some of them seemed to have just come along to enjoy the trip. They would lie down and sunbathe in the grass and flowering Lavender, seemingly with no interest in feeding at all. Others would gallop around and bicker with each other.. nothing aggresive, they just seemed very laid back.

Those were from a hide, we also visited a mountain top castle at Monfrague National Park. The birds were flying past level with or below us here, as we waited for the lowering sun the shots got better and better. They were flying so close at times that we were unable to fit the whole bird in the frame. As you can see from some of the close-ups here which haven't been cropped.