Archived & Upcoming Images of the Day
Just one day of sunshine in the week brought out
a wagtail to hunt for insects on the roof.
Here the insect before it is caught is just below the foot of the second bird from
the right. The frame rate was about 5 fps.
In omitted frames 8 & 9 the bird has already landed but by frame 10 it has raised
it's tail so that it didn't obscure frame 7.
 wagtail taking insect from slates to swallow on roof ridge 02-07+10 of 11 (montage)(r+mb id@1024).jpg)
The magnificent colours of this male pheasant have been left exactly as they came from the camera.
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Thawing and re-freezing produced some interesting effects. including the growing of these icicles.
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This log used as a photographic prop is often thrown aside by the bigger birds to get at food trapped at the base, but in the rain is stuck down in the mud, and won't move even with the rook bracing its legs in a wide stance.
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These two successive frames were taken about 5 hours apart, but appearing consecutively in the 1000's of images we review each week, suggested this 'fun' (for us, not the mouse) lineup.
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We don't see many mice at site 2, but this is a delight. The lack of vertical blur indicates it is near the top of a leap from nowhere to nowhere - the nearest above ground level launch platforms are at least a metre away in every direction.
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The first large mammal appearance since a fortnight of freezing weather saw this fox on a rainy night just stepping over the stone and hopefully missing the slug on it.
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Entry for Twee picture of the year - pairs section!
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Rooks in the snow are better lit than normal. We don't use multiple flash heads or other shadow filling techniques because the extra clutter puts off the visitors. Here the snow provides a natural 'fill-in' reflector.
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It's a difficult time for rabbits with their primary food source of grass locked in by snow and ice. Here one leaves it's burrow for a look about before going back in the warm.
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'Three (not) Blind Mice, ...' - actually a rather Macabre nursery rhyme.
This is the first time we have seen 3 mice together at this site,
and its unusual to ever get such a neat lineup (un-fudged single frame).
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The black specks are Niger seed originally bought to attract Goldfinches. But the finches much prefer the hundreds of teasel heads we leave ill-kempt for them. Anyway, the mice also seem to like niger seed although it may be all that is left by 8 p.m. in difficult weather.
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Days of freezing and snow encouraged us to load up our feeding sites with stored food. Here a robin visits in light snow long after all but fragments have gone.
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The thrush is undoubtedly not finding much by way of snails and insects with the ground frozen, and we have seen them filling up of stored fruit we put out.
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Jackdaws pounce on the feeding sites as soon as we leave.
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These male Chaffinches can't resist a bit of a squabble even when food is short in the snow.
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A pair of moorhen can be seen on all of the larger ponds but it has been unusual to see one at a photo site. Judging from the open beak the melting snow has allowed the bird to have a good probe in the mud.
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The strained pulp from making blackberry jelly (from frozen blackberries stored raw in the freezer is a big hit with the animals in cold weather.
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Delicate use of a powerful magpie beak.
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We don't remember a fieldfare on this trunk top before. The snow will be making finding food difficult and the birds are searching new areas for food.
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This Fieldfare spends a ridiculous amount of time at this site
usually well out of focus when other creatures trigger the camera.
The Site http://www.mybitoftheplanet.com
reports 'territoral' Redwing in the 10 Jan 2010
diary entry and we may have something similar here in this
similar bird (they often flock together).
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At last more than 1 mouse at a time at this site relocated some weeks ago.
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'I'm thinking about a petition to have this rock lowered'.
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Not much hovering in the cold weather - easier to sit on the wires and wait!
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OK - lets try further along the wires. This bird made several stops over 10 minutes or so but didn't catch anything on the snowy ground.
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The frost has been so severe it doesn't have much sparkle. But we have had a try ..
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A slightly mad looking Jackdaw taking off from the site.
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Rowan berries (stored in the freezer since autumn) seem to be a last choice of what we are putting out but the mice either like them, or its all that's left and they are glad to have them. The RH edge isn't our choice - its where the mouse was.
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From 4 months ago and found in a cameras 2nd memory card slot were some images of a moorhen using one of it's summertime favourite perches on folded over Iris fronds. We still often see it there overnight on the CCTV.
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Christmas day 4 months later a couple of moorhen are frequenting all of the ponds. The main pond is shaded by the house in the winter and stays frozen longer than the others, but a bit of mixed corn sprinkled on the ice keeps just about everything walking on the ice - Moorhen, corvids, robins, blackbirds and even Pheasants.
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