I am not sure that enough is made of luck when discussing capturing wildlife images. Yes, you can do a lot of research and you need to have a very particular set of skills (apologies if I’m starting to sound like Liam Neeson’s character in Taken). But if the animal doesn’t show up – or does show up and decides to sit/perch on the other side of a tree, etc. – you won’t be getting that image. I couldn’t help but laugh when a friend told me of the horrendous weather conditions he endured for hours to capture a rarity, which only made a brief appearance for the ten minutes he was in his car changing his soaking clothes. That is the natural world for you! Apologies to anyone reading this who is considering starting their wildlife photography journey, I don’t mean to dishearten you. Of course, there are many days like those I describe above, but there are those days when the wildlife turns up in a pretty spectacular way. And one of those days happened recently.
You may have heard that Glasgow had its white Christmas a couple of weeks ago – better late than never. While some locals cursed their luck as they scraped the ice off their cars, I was hastily planning an early lunch break to get some images before the snow turned to slush.
Last year I got lucky with my local foxes in wintry conditions. Taking a walk past their usual haunts after snowfall often led to at least a fleeting glimpse. On some days, like last Friday, I hit the jackpot.
I can only assume that this individual was a youngster due to his – or her – behaviour. It seemed intent on practising the predatory pounce before rolling on its back, paws waving in the air. It would then try to settle in the snow for a snooze, which would last for all of a minute before it rose and trotted off to investigate something else. Then the process would repeat itself. I could have watched it all day, but my inbox eventually forced me to head for home.
Sadly, this fox’s pretend prey item was a plastic bottle, which you can see clearly in the video below.
Last year, the Mammal Society, with support from Waitrose & Partners’ Golden Jubilee Trust scheme and the University of Sussex, launched a project to investigate the impact of plastic pollution on Britain’s small mammals. Many people will be aware of the threat plastics pose to sea life, but the Mammal Society has highlighted that much less is known about the impacts on land-based creatures. They hope that by analysing the droppings of some of our most widespread species – including squirrels, mice, rats and shrews, which are all prey for larger animals – they can discover the extent to which these plastics end up in the food chain. They can also then understand the health threats posed by different types of plastic, both through ingestion and entanglement.
It’s a project I’ll be keeping a close eye on. Unfortunately, there is a large amount of waste in the area where this fox is playing. I believe some of this comes from littering, some is from overflowing bins, and some is from fly-tipping – which seems to be a particular issue for the river banks in this area. I have done a few litter picks, but a lot of the waste is on inaccessible private land. I am looking into ways to get this issue investigated and sorted out without disturbing the wildlife living in these secluded spots behind the houses.
While I was fortunate to have the opportunity to get intimate views of this fox as it explored in the snow, photographing in these conditions wasn’t without its issues. The images from this encounter were reliant on my use of back-button focus. The fox was on the opposite side of the river to me, with many overhanging branches between us. Locking and holding focus was tricky in these conditions, especially when this beauty moved and the water fell from the trees as the snow began to melt. Using back-button focus made it much easier to capture an image only when I was sure the focus had locked on to the fox. If you look closely at the image below, you can see the lines made by the out-of-focus branches. Although this image is a bit cluttered, I still really like it.
After returning from the Lake District in December, I thought I would put my trail camera back in the same spot it had been in until summer last year. Since mid-December, it has been recording increasing activity from the foxes. I hope it can stay there until the summer again this year. If you want to catch up on the goings-on of the foxes – and other wildlife – that live by my local burn, please head over to my YouTube channel.
For now, I will keep my fingers crossed for more good fortune with the foxes in the coming months. Hopefully, there will be many more encounters for me and less litter for them.