Thursday 15 April 2010

Local residents

Yesterday, I heard a rustling noise as I walked past the bee hive. It came from under the raised paving slabs. Sure enough - a little face peeped out and looked at me, with fox-brown fur, a soft shiny brown snout and beady brown eyes. It disappeared in an instant and with another rustle, and reapperaed from under the slab a little closer to me. I stood as still as I could - in quite a wind - while it popped in and out, coming closer and closer while checking out what that big new thing on its turf is. I thought it was a rat, until I noticed the round ears and its cheeky attitude - attitude is a very apt word for this wee guy. It finally popped out fully and stood up, just over a metre away from my feet, revealing its bright white tummy fur while standing on its hind feet and sniffing the air like a meer cat. A kingdom for a camera! He soon lost interest though and wandered off under the long row of slabs, popping out its head occasionally to check on the situation outside.

Today, I saw him again, under the paving slabs on the opposite side, under the deceased bee hives. It came out fully, sniffed, disappeared and re-emerged to dump a grey bundle about half its size in front of it. I fumbled for my camera as it ran off towards the pumkin patch, where I demonstrated my failure as a wildlife photographer. Here are the results:

out of focus
hm, great action shot but no head...
best of three, but the rabbit's missing (or: does my bum look big in this?)
I really like this little guy. I hope he still comes in to our patch through the chicken wire or over the wall once it's fenced in. Our all-natural rabbit removal service!

Our resident pheasant Morag is a much more static model. More so than her current boyfriend below.
The single remaining bee hive is doing better now spring is here - still practicing getting them in focus though!

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