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Temporary Reflection Pool Setup

Update: Since this post I have now built a large permanent Reflection Pool. Blog post available HERE.

You may remember a post a few days back where I said that I’d bought a Greenhouse Tray. Well it was to build a temporary Reflection Pool in the garden.

I set it up tonight, excuse the photos as it was starting to get dark when I finished (6:30pm and it’s starting to get dark!!! Grrrrr!).

As you can see from the photos the tray is mounted on some DIY A-Frames and I’ve made a shallow area in which I hope the birds will visit. At the back out of sight I’ve put some Suet and Peanuts to try and tempt them. It’s setup near the bird feeders, so hopefully, it’ll be an easy temptation.

The only thing that worries me is that the tray isn’t long enough and either I can’t fit a full reflection in or you’ll see the front edge of the tray in shot.

DIY Reflection Pool
DIY Reflection Pool
Shallow end
Shallow end
Food to tempt the birds
Food to tempt the birds



I’ll leave it for a day or two for the birds to get used to it and then see what I get.

Here’s an idea on what a Reflection Pool gives, again, not great quality as it was really bad light.

Reflection Pool
Reflection Pool
Reflection Pool
Reflection Pool

Long wait for the Vixen tonight

Typical, she’s been coming just after 9pm for the last few nights whilst it’s still quite light. So I set-up a hide in preparation and waited and waited and waited, then it went dark, and I waited.

Just in case this happened, I put the flood lights on ready. Plus, I wanted the lights to give her that all important sparkle in her eye even if it was still light.

She turned up around 10:10pm so hardly any usable light left, but you can just about see some blue sky tint in her eyes.

{Click image for a higher resolution, click Flickr Link in caption to view photo on Flickr}
Vixen - D7100, AF-S 300mm f/2.8 @ f/2.8, ISO3200, 1/10sec - {Flickr Link}
Vixen - D7100, AF-S 300mm f/2.8 @ f/2.8, ISO3200, 1/15sec - {Flickr Link}

A different Fox came, is it finally the missing Male?

It’s not a simple answer! I don’t know. He only showed up for a fraction of a second before running off. The one thing that really identified the Male was that his tail was very short and busy. As he didn’t come into the shot fully, I can’t make out his tail. He has quite a thick coat which the Male certainly did.

However, as you can see from the photos, they are 2 different Foxes, the 2nd photo is the Vixen. These two shots were only 30 seconds apart too, so they were together, which is unusual for Foxes.

It’s too big to be one of the young, so I can only hope this is finally proof that the Male is around and well.

Vixen
Vixen
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Another shot of the Vixen from Saturday Night

Here is the 2nd photo I managed on Saturday night. I cropped in tight due to the fact that she was slightly too close for me to fit her into the frame.

As I type this she is currently darting around the garden, not quite sure why as she usually just eats the food and runs away. I look forward to getting more photos soon.

{Click image for a higher resolution, click Flickr Link in caption to view photo on Flickr}
Vixen - D7100, AF-S 300mm f/2.8 @ f/2.8, ISO3200, 1/15sec - {Flickr Link}

The Vixen in Full Colour

After putting the food out last night, I left the garden flood lights on and used my Land Rover as a hide. I wasn’t sure if she’d come with the lights on, but after waiting for about half an hour she showed up.

Even with the lights on, it’s very dark for a camera which meant a very high ISO of 3200. Even so, the shutter speed was only 1/20 second which means she had to be very still at the time of the photograph.

This is the best one I managed to get which I’m pretty happy with. It’s a bit “noisy” due to the high ISO, but still good enough.

I have the option of setting up a remote flash to light the scene, but I’m not a fan of this as I’m sure she won’t appreciate it. It worked for the Mouse shot a few weeks ago but pretty sure it would scare the Fox away and the last thing I want to do is spook her enough that she stops coming.

{Click image for a higher resolution, click Flickr Link in caption to view photo on Flickr}
Vixen - D7100, AF-S 300mm f/2.8 @ f/2.8, ISO3200, 1/20sec - {Flickr Link}

Blackbird against a White Moon

The Moon was great at Sunset tonight and I was trying to use the last of the light before it went behind some clouds to photograph the House Martins and Swallows that have arrived for the summer.

I noticed a Blackbird sitting on the electricity cable singing away and a couple of steps sideways put the awesome moon this evening right behind him.

The final photo is made from 2 photos taken from the same place, but with different apertures to ensure both the Blackbird and Moon were in focus, they were then merged together in Photoshop. This is where Photoshop is not cheating, it simply gives you the tool to create what the camera cannot capture which is the same view your eyes are seeing. I couldn’t decide if I like the Landscape or Portrait crop, so have included both.

{Click image for a higher resolution, click Flickr Link in caption to view photo on Flickr}
Blackbird Singing - D7100, AF-S 300mm f/2.8 - {Flickr Link}
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