Chance encounter

I had a walk this afternoon in another area with substantial blackthorn thickets and spent some time, to no avail, looking for both Brown and Black Hairstreak butterfly eggs (see yesterday's post). This activity, involving peering closely at blackthorn twigs whilst avoiding getting one of the very nasty thorns in the face, becomes very absorbing (an old hand described it as meditative!). At one point I straightened up for a rest and saw that there was a fox crossing the ride about 30 metres further on. I froze, gently pulled my little compact camera out of my pocket and made the necessary settings by feel. I managed to get two shots, hand-held on maximum zoom before the fox shot into the scrub and this one was almost sharp, even after further cropping on my computer. I love it when these snatched shots work out. It easily made up for thr disappointment of finding no more butterfly eggs.