February Highlights.

The start of February was still cold with some snow on the ground. This limited my work somewhat but in turn enabled me to get out a little bit more with the camera. Though I only had to step out of my front door to get pictures as I had made sure throughout the cold weather that the birds in the garden did not go hungry, and this was to give several photo opportunities.

I had a couple of Fieldfares coming to the garden regularly to feed on the apples I was putting out. I had kept several in storage over winter purely to feed the birds on. Blackbirds were always out in the garden, and one hen bird in paticular became quite tame. Occasionally a Song Thrush would turn up to feed on the porridge oats that I was also putting out. Various finches would always be around, especially the Goldfinches which added a lovely splash of colour to the white of winter.

About mid February, I decided to go and sit down the river Alde to see what was about. I checked to see what time high tide was, and got there an hour or so early so that I was settled and in position as the tide rose, thus pushing any waders in towards where I was hidden. There were a lot of duck out on the river, mainly Wigeon, Teal, Gadwall and Mallard. There were several Shellduck too, and a small number of Pintail. A lot of Greylag Geese were also moving up and down the river.

Of the waders there were a lot of Dunlin and Redshank, just a few Curlew and four Avocet. The highlight though were a pair of Grey Plover. I had not noticed them to start with, but then I caught a movement right up against the shoreline. I could still not quite see what it was untill I got a good view through the binoculars to see at first just the one, and then another one further along. As the tide came in, they come along right in front of me and only about twenty five metres away, and I was able to take a lot of shots of them individually, out on the mud and also right in the edge with still a bit of snow laying on the shoreline.

Towards the end of the month, I decided to go for a slow drive early one morning around some of the roads through Dunwich Forest. This can be very fruitful when there is nobody else about. I saw several Muntjac as I drove around, and was able to pull slowly into the edge and get one or two shots before they got too suspicous and melted away back into the forest. It was a Fox that gave me my best shot though.

I had got the shots of the Muntjac and was actually just coming out of the forest, when something caught my attention about thirty metres in from the edge of the road. As I past slowly by, it became clear what it was. It was a Fox curled up asleep! They will sometimes do this if they have just had a good sized meal. They just find somewhere cosy and curl up to have a bit of a sleep, normally in cover but sometimes right out in the open just as this one had. I pulled up a short distance further on and got the camera ready to take some quick shots.

I took a reading for the camera from some leaves just in the forest edge and slowly backed up. The Fox was still there, looking at first to be sound asleep. As I looked through the viewfinder though, with the lense on full zoom, it became evident that all was not as it seemed. He had one eye open watching my every movement! I did not rush though, as I knew any sudden movement would spook him straight away. It was obvious by the size that it was a dog Fox, and he allowed me to take five controlled shots before getting up and wandering away without even looking back. February was coming to an end, and with it the promise of spring just around the corner.