Latest fox shots

Three of the vixen's four cubs have dispersed, but the runt is still hanging around Mum, though she often gets snarled at. No doubt the vixen will be expecting her next family soon. As fox family members often help babysit the cubs, I wonder if this role will fall to the runt? Or perhaps she will produce her own family and I shall have to buy more bags of budget dog biscuits!

Here are a couple of recent shots of the vixen.

Sparrowhawk attack

Having marvelled at a huge flock of wood pigeons, about 200 of them, swirling around in the sky, I threw out some bread and settled down to see which bird would be first on the scene. As usual, it was a magpie, but just as a pigeon swooped down from the roof to join it, a brown arrow hurtled after it. The pigeon narrowly missed being exploded into a hundred feathery pieces as the predator missed its strike and darted off between the trees. It was thrilling to watch. It was also quite a while before any birds appeared in the garden again!

Great Spotted Woodpecker and Parakeet

This was a duo worthy of a photograph! But I didn't take this one. My partner did, with his vastly superior 18 megapixel Canon camera. It quite puts my little 8 megapixel Fuji in the shade.

The last cub

The three bigger cubs are all fending for themselves now, but the runt, a small, slightly tatty-looking vixen, is still hanging around her mother, who is getting increasingly impatient with her. Having got used to being fed by mum, she looked quite shocked when she was not invited to share the scraps we had put in the bowl. Just look at her shocked body language when Mum snarled and chased her off!

Oh go on, let me have some.

But Mum, I'm ever so hungry...

Okay, no need to shout!

Back-endish

When it got to this time of year and the plants were getting straggly and faded (a little like myself), my mother used to say, "The garden's looking back-endish," as in the back end of the year. I think this picture I took the other day illustrates 'back-endish' perfectly!

Red Kite Over Hillingdon

This afternoon, I was lucky enough to spot this red kite as it swooped over the roof and banked off towards the tall oaks in search of an airborne meal.

Autumn caterpillar

Isn't it a bit late for caterpillars? Obviously, this one doesn't think so as it is merrily munching my geranium. Anybody know what it is? It's certainly a handsome chap, which leads me to another question: do caterpillars have a sex? I don't mean, do caterpillars have sex. It's the butterflies that do that. But there are male and female butterflies, so are there also male and female caterpillars? To Google I must go.