Archived & Upcoming Images of the Day
3 Adult Jackdaws doing we know not what.
Enjoy that glorious plumage.
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The jackdaws have done very well this year. Although we do see large numbers together, the 'family group' of 3 to 5 birds is more typical - mum + dad + sprogs.
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Within the same 30 minutes this Chaffinch male got photographed at 3 stages in his landing approach. Horizontally stretched spacings.
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Male chaffinch flying off with another mouthful of food.
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The pattern on the breast seems more broken than the usual horizontal bars, so we assume that this is a young Sparrowhawk. It is perched on a long-dead branch of a 90 year old apple tree photographed through the conservatory window.
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This Buzzard seems to be carrying the remains of some sort of bird. It is obviously taking it back to youngsters - at other times of year they consume the whole item near to where they catch it.
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A male chaffinch being watched, we only noticed later, by the female on the right peeping over the stone.
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Possibly the same male landing in a flurry of wings on the top of a fir cone.
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A male Chaffinch attacking a female from another pair?
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On the hedge outside the living room, a Bluetit collects insects to feed this chick.
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A closer look at another mouthful.
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The ever gaping maw of the Bluetit chick in the background, demanding that tiny grub.
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Would butter melt in this Bluetit chick's beak?
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Read this sequence top left to top right, bottom left to bottom right, as a Red Kite fancied the prey the Buzzard (top) was carrying but didn't get any. The prey is probably a rabbit.
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The first Bee-swarm we have seen here in our 20 years here.
We shut all the windows 'just in case' - a house full of bees
didn't appeal. This is the swarm shortly after being noticed
outside the conservatory. There were clearly many thousands of
bees, but not making as much 'buzz' as we expected from
experience with small numbers.
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Over 20 minutes the thousands of bees formed a cluster in a bush about 10 metres from the conservatory. They were behaving so quietly we went out for a careful look. This image is of most of the bush using flash so you can see the cluster in the shade. You could walk by and not notice.
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Detail of the bottom of the cluster in natural light.
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All gone 3 Hours later - we missed the departure. If we hadn't seen the swarm in flight from the conservatory we would almost certainly not have known anything had happened.
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Instead of the Moon watching Hare, how about A stargazing Jackdaw?
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A different Jackdaw stomping across the site
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On the perch by the peanut feeder this young jackdaw is undoubtedly waiting to be fed, but they quickly learn how to peck out the food!
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A juvenile Wren searching the hedge for insects.
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A female Four-Spotted chaser dragonfly was laying eggs in the Duck-shaped pond and then stopped for a rest. We hadn't seen one since the sequence in May 1999 (see Dragonfly Emergence) and a male in 2009.
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Here the female Four-Spotted chaser is perched on a Dogwood stem.
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Detail of the head and legs of the female Four-Spotted chaser perched on a Dogwood stem.
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Yummy
Leopard Slug mucus for the Fieldmouse (Wood Mouse) to lick!
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We like these corn-on-the-cob sections, and the Grey squirrel here likes them as well. These two images 5 minutes apart.
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A really busy male Kestrel (not the atypically barred-tail individual seen in the winter) hunting the pasture to our west from the 11kV power cables.
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The male kestrel seemed to move to a new position at least once a minute - here he is in amongst a complicated 'T'-junction of cables on the 11kV power system.
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A pair of Large Red Damselflies taking a rest from laying. The male is on the left clasping the female with the special claspers on his tail tip that only lock onto the correct species female.
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Over 15 minutes this Grey Squirrel guarded the slice of apple while it gobbled down the corn and other high protein stuff, before carrying the apple away with it
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Next day this Bluetit arrived first at the freshly replenished site.
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No idea what was going on here.
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The Squirrel looks fine with this picture either way up, even if the peanut feeder doesn't. This is the reality!
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This pristine young Robin will have to wait to get his red breast.
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A male Chaffinch flying into the site giving an early Fieldmouse (Wood Mouse) a fright.
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One Great Spotted Woodpecker chick has been fed peanut fragments (along with more natural insects and grubs) by its Dad for hours on end at this feeder. Here is a typical encounter.
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2 hour later the juvenile flew straight at the kitchen window and landed stunned on the grass a few feet from the wall. Here it is having a rest for a few minutes before flying off while we watched out for cats etc. It did the same again next day, but a much lighter impact allowed it to fly away without stopping.
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Next day we enjoyed this 'hang by one foot' technique by the adult to feed the juvenile waiting impatiently on the post !
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Some Bluetit chicks are now being fed peanuts at the feeder.
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Another Bluetit chick begging for food.
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Great Tit in possession of the tree-stump top making it very clear to the Bluetit that it is not welcome.
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We know Wood Pigeons can be a menace for farmers (and indeed our own vegetable bed), but pigeons are wonderful birds, great flyers, look lovely and produce a variety of re-assuring 'coos'.
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This pair of Wood Pigeons are often around the house in treetops, post tops etc. Here they are mutually preening on the back of a seat.
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As summer approaches male Mallard ducks start shedding their glorious mating colours and moult into 'Eclipse'. He will grow his wonderful new set come Autumn. Summer visitors to parks never see them in their glory.
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We have seen Grey Partridge about the farmland, but this one came through and was seen for a couple of days at this site. We can't see the distinguishing marks to tell us which sex.
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Next day another sighting, possibly of the same individual Grey Partridge, but we can see the large dark patch on the belly indicating that this is a male.
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Lots of rain has produced some interesting raindrop patterns, including this delightful Wild Rose flower. No fiddling - this is how we found it.
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Half an hour after the Spring dawn these two Grey Squirrels seem to be starting their day with a 'quickie'.
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The skin of the piece of apple will get eaten by something, but this squirrel prefers the soft flesh. Reminds us of finishing a Mango!
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A moment from one of the seemingly endless skirmishes and chases between the (at least) 4 squirrels on the site.
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3 little innocents - taking a break from ripping the bark off trees or chasing each other madly in circles!
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What's under here?
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A week later trying a different techniques with the log laying the opposite way round.
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A Male pheasant showering himself with dusty soil from the end of the early potato row. Oh well - all of the pheasants pick this one place near the house, so the damage is limited. We also see plumes of ash from the middle of the meadow when they bath in the remains of the bonfire ash.
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One of the female Great Spotted Woodpeckers stops by the tree-stump for a nice portrait.
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Look at the wear on the tail feathers - just what you would expect from a bird that uses it's tail tip as a 'third leg' when climbing up and down the side of trees.
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A tiny Menagerie on the top of the stone. This is the ONLY mouse image we got this week.
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20 minutes after the mouse we got our first sighting of this young fox. It was 1 minute before this image, but all we got was it's rear! At least it is not fazed by the camera flash.
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