Archived & Upcoming Images of the Day
As we brushed by a hedge this drenched robin fledgling hopped out and crouched not knowing what to do next. We moved away and a parent came down to guide it to safety.
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Wet night brings out the slugs and mice.
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Spuds peelings and spoilage seem to be appreciated by the crows.
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The Robin on the left appears to be begging for the morsel in the right robin's beak. These are both adults so this is probably 'courtship feeding'.
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You can see the nibble marks where this fieldmouse (wood mouse) eats the flesh off this piece of apple peel.
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A sort of Hare and the Tortoise?
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These 2 magpies look like they really aren't keen on each other. Its amazing that you see so few injured birds when you see the fights.
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These fieldmice (wood mice) seem to be chasing one another through a sea of slugs and beans.
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A growing young moorhen (one of 3) caught in the middle of a preen.
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2 young woodpeckers are currently begging for food at various places. Here Dad provides some peanuts crumbs he has just hacked out of a feeder on the other side of the house (rather than the one a foot above this photo).
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The baked beans have also attracted back a field vole to join the slugs in a feast.
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Tesco baked beans seem to be a huge hit. Here a young fieldmouse (wood mouse) and (probably) it's mother sample the delights.
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One of the 3 healthy moorhen chicks stomping through the buttercups.
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One of the Great Spotted Woodpecker youngsters waiting impatiently for a feed.
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Can I swim? Of course fieldmice (wood mice) can swim but dry is better. A storm on 3 June delivered 31mm of rain, most of it in the 2 hours before this photo. Water is streaming through the site. The vignetting blur is a fun side effect of a drenched camera window.
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Pollen drifting in the breeze (with a little help from us) from the male flower of a pine tree.
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From the perspective given by the shadow it looks like the mouse in the air is leaping onto the one underneath.
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Robins are still collecting food for their youngsters.
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This looks like an adult fieldmouse (wood mouse) and a recent sprog. Note the different fur colours.
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Here is a nicely posed Yellowhammer showing how the upper and lower mandibles (top and bottom parts of the beak) differ in shape, presumably giving them some advantage tackling their diet of seeds and grain.
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There are a number of damselfly species (smallest members of the Dragonfly family) around. Expert opinion suggests this is an Azure Damselfly Female of the green persuasion, rather than our identification in the filename with (Q) to indicate '?' - unsure.
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If we didn't know better we would think the Fieldmouse (Wood Mouse) on the right was telling a joke.
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This disagreeable looking bird is a Robin fledgling - just a few days out of the nest. The red breast is an adult characteristic.
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Over the last 15 years Buzzards have moved from a few sighting a year to a few a week. This one glided over the house on a warm afternoon.
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We have been visited by swifts more than in previous years. On one of the few bright days we managed to photograph this one with its beak open collecting insects.
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Normally we have only occasionally seen Cockchafer beetles whizz by, but this one was playing dead (and wasn't!) in a shed so we took some pictures before putting it somewhere safe. Its BIG - the body is 3cm long.
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The territorial disputes continue - this time a Yellowhammer we are sure is breeding nearby attacks a chaffinch which is probably the one who regularly sings in a hedge top a few metres away.
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A Blackbird male looking unusually spruce for the breeding season.
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A yellowhammer looking a bit scruffy - we often see a pair in this corner of the site so they a presumably breeding nearby.
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We have no idea what our mad fieldmice (wood mice) are doing here.
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