The next generation

The fledgling great spotted woodpeckers usually arrive in the garden in the second week of June.  I first hear them calling in the tops of the trees as their parents collect food for them from the feeders.  Within a day or two they are brave enough to come nearer the feeders and after a day or two more they can fed themselves and are left to get on with it.  All this makes catching them on a photo quite challenging.  There is only a very short time window and they often sit on the wrong branch or on the wrong side of the tree or face the wrong way.  This year I was lucky although it was very early on a cloudy morning under the trees so the light was terrible but the camera coped remarkably well.

Here is another sequence.

And a short video.  It is interesting that the woodpecker chick will take a swipe at a blue tit even at this very young age.

The perils of life for a fox cub

This is the first time I have ever seen a fox cub in the garden.  For the past few nights it has usually been the first to arrive.  It is obviously independent and is big enough to climb or jump over the rabbit-proof fence to get in.  I am pretty sure it is the same cub each time as it has a distinctive black mark on its tail.

Not surprisingly the cub is very wary of the other foxes and spends a lot of time looking out for them so it can stay out of trouble.

After I took these photos the cub disappeared into the wood so I left the camera.  Several minutes later I heard a tremendous commotion outside the kitchen and when I looked out two (adult) foxes were having a screaming match on the drive.  Eventually the submissive fox (a vixen) disappeared and the dominant one (a dog) returned to the peanuts. It was only when I retrieved the trail camera the next morning that I could work out what had happened.

The cub had been eating on its own and was later joined by a vixen (my guess is the mother).

Then a dog fox arrived and the mother left.

Moments later the dog fox attacked the cub.  It was a pretty fierce affair with fur flying.

Although the cub was clearly overpowered the dog fox was momentarily distracted by the glow of the infrared light on the trail camera.

A few moments later the cub counterattacked.

Both then left the scene but the dog fox returned and was immediately attacked by a vixen.  I assume this was the returning mother.

The screaming match I then saw was between the dog fox and the mother (the cub had sensibly disappeared).  The trail camera can only record 20s clips at night and takes a 3-5s break in between.  I have run these events together to show what happened but there are a few short gaps.  If you can bear to watch (and listen) here it is:

I don't know whether the dog fox's attack was to establish a hierarchy or as a dispute over access to food, although I suspect the former.  Later the dog was eating with two vixens but the relationship was clearly tense.  (The one in the centre is the two-tone vixen I posted recently.  She was eating with the cub last night but I don't think she is the mother.)

Some while later, when the coast was clear, the cub returned.  At one point it was joined again by a vixen, perhaps the mother, and you can hear the cub seeking reassurance as the adult fox approaches.

The cub then stayed eating alone until 0430 the next morning.

The cub has returned on the past two nights and, although still very alert, doesn't seem too affected by what happened. These two photos were taken last night.  The cub eats much faster than an adult fox and is constantly looking over to the wood for signs of trouble.

Maybe it's just all part of growing up in the fox world.

A walk round the pond - week 24

When the sun is shining male emperor dragonflies seem to fly incessantly, rarely stopping for breath, so I was pleased when this one paused for a moment for a quick photo.

A few minutes later I saw a female laying eggs in the middle of the smaller pond, just about within range of the camera.

This female broad-bodied chaser is now showing darker brown colouring on her abdomen as she matures.

There are still very many damselflies - common blue, azure, blue-tailed and large red.

A new butterfly this week was a meadow brown.

And a new moth - a brown china-mark (Elophila nymphaeata).  The adults I saw seemed all to prefer resting upside down.  This moth lays its eggs on the underside of floating leaves and the caterpillars have gills and live underwater.  Amazing.

Here is another striking moth.  After searching online I think it is probably a female yellow-barred longhorn moth (Nemophora degeerella), one I definitely haven't seen before.  The male's antennae are twice as long as these but sadly I didn't see one.

I don't go looking for hoverflies (people who do call it hoverating) but there are very many around the ponds and a few of them catch my eye.  This one (I think) is a male Chrysotoxum bicinctum.

This one is Volucella bombylans var. bombylans, pretending to be a red-tailed bumblebee.

I heard this willow warbler before I saw it.  Its call is a "hoo-eet" which you can hear here.  The bird looked a bit frazzled, understandable as it is working flat out to feed its young.

There are several willow warbler nests on the site and I found one of them hidden at the base of a small willow.  I couldn't see it but poked the phone in quickly and was lucky to get these photos.

Other birds I heard this week included little grebe, curlew, yellowhammer, lesser whitethroat and skylark.

I haven't seen a toad since they were spawning several weeks ago but I met this one crossing the path. 

And finally