A vixen comes to call, sniffing the air very cautiously.

I went back to the caravan hide this evening,  quite hopeful that I would be able to photograph one of the buzzards that I saw this morning and just as before, as I approached I disturbed a buzzard right in front of the hide.  Surely it would come back and I would get a photograph?  I sat in the hide until it was almost dark but no, it didn't return.  It can be frustrating but patience is all it takes. Birds of Prey are very wery creatures and it's obvious that they are also intelligent enough not to put themselves in harms way. The same can be said of  Foxes and I knew that they had bee around the hide regularly these last few days. It wasn't a big surprise when one sauntered up towards the rabbit carcass in the fading light. But what was more than interesting was the level of caution. It sniffed the air and then slowly came forward stopping and sniffing again. I saw the exact moment that it caught a whiff of me and decided that it didn't like what it could smell. It was too risky, even for a whole rabbit it wasn't worth risking it's life and so, off it scurried. A lucky, lucky fox because had I been one of those characters that likes to shoot foxes (for one reason or another, justifiably or not), then she would have been as dead as a dodo! Fortunately my shots were with a camera and not a 12 gage shotgun.

It knows there is a nice fat rabbit for the taking!

It came really close and was more interested in the smell of me rather than food.

This was the moment that it picked up my scent and decided it was time to leave, I never realised I smelt so strongly!  

It's quite sad to think that when the crops are cut in a few weeks, it's quite likely that this beautiful creature will be shot and that upsets me considerably. Quite sure that this lovely fox is not doing much harm, it's not even an urban fox causing damage and nuisance, its a truly wild animal living in the countryside like wild animals are supposed to.

Another first tonight was a young Carrion Crow that came down to drink from the pool (as well as a Wood Pigeon) so it seems that the pool has at last started to attract birds.  It was quite interesting that this young crow totally ignored the rabbit cracass.