Tuesdays beautiful sunny day started with a early alarm call from the local Great Spotted Woodpecker. This is the female, and she often sits on this perch first thing in the morning and just before the sun goes down.....
She is feeding young in a tree way over to my right. Judging by how many times she is visiting the nut and fat ball feeder, I reckon her chicks will be fledging soon.
At 7pm, I started doing my regular 'fox watch'. I know, from keeping a 'fox log', that she generally appears from the den between 7 and 8pm each evening. The cubs join her shortly afterwards but only stay out for 20 minutes or so.
Tonight I was both unlucky and lucky...…. the first time I saw her was 7.10pm, and the cubs joined her a few minutes later. But unluckily, and which is becoming annoyingly frequently, my camera just could not focus on them properly. Despite putting up a make-shift sun screen to the side of the open loft window using a curtain, the sun was just too high up to get any really decent shots. You can see from the pics below, that the lens was picking up all the midges and pollen flakes that were above field.
The vixen went off to hunt just after my last dreadful photo was taken. The cubs lingered and played for a short while, then they went off in the direction of the den.
But luckily for me, the vixen came back to the den just after 8pm.
The sun had set just behind the tree tops so wasn't blinding my view. Again, not great pics but I haven't had to edit these ones a much as the previous ones..
I'm still baffled how they are communicating, but the cubs came running out as if called and proceeded to suckle from her for a good ten minutes. She must be very keen to get them weaned now. It cant be easy having four growing cubs, with their little sharp teeth, hanging off you all at the same time. My photos are crap, but you can just make out how uncomfortable she looks with her legs splayed and trying to accommodate four squirming bodies under her.
Again, they disappeared just as quickly as they appeared.
I feel quite privileged to be witnessing this lovely family scene. I just wish I could record it better in photos.
In other news from the lockdown loftroom, my second caterpillar started to pupate this evening. Instead of taking photos, I managed to get the whole process on a video clip on my iphone. I'll try to upload the vid clips on to here tomorrow.
Keep well everyone and stay safe
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