Archived & Upcoming Images of the Day
A Dunnock in flight chasing off a confused merging of 2 birds hurriedly leaving the log.
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"Over the Rainbow" A swallow made a couple of runs down our boundary and by chance crossed over a rainbow just starting to form. We have colour enhanced this a bit to make it more like we remember it.
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3 minutes later no colour or other enhancement is needed for this really intense rainbow fragment. The second bow passes through the top right corner but is washed out.
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A clump of Primroses shines in the evening sun on the North facing bank of one of our pond spoil heaps we use to provide variation.
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We have just one 'Christmas Tree' on the plot, probably now 25 years old and producing scores of long thin cones. The Grey squirrels chew at these to get out the seeds.
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A pristine magpie shows us that the bird is far from just 'Black and White'
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This male Muntjac deer was sampling all sorts of 'green stuffs' as it wandered round the pond, and here eat a single Blackberry (bramble) leaf, taking nearly half a minute between first and last images. Perhaps avoiding the prickles requires care! We love his 'vampire' fang!
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Pausing during the wrecking of our pond surround, this male Muntjac deer had a groom with his huge tongue.
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The male Muntjac deer made morning and evening visits to the pond in one day. We think he looks lovely in the daffodils, which show just how small they are.
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A starling carrying along a piece of weed twice the bird's length
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The hole leads into a closed section of loft space used annually by starlings to build nests.
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A jackdaw collecting dead twigs and strips of bark for the nest
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A bit more stuff for the nest.
We have to trim back the bottom of conifers as they grow across
paths and we use the fronds to re-enforce muddy section of walks.
This Jackdaw has obviously found a small one and pulled it up
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Not a rare bird, but our first sighting ever of a Redpoll. A few were in the hedge by the now soggy haystack left near our boundary. Not seen since this sighting.
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The small group of Redpolls were there to feed on the Hawthorn buds
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We are getting rather 'fond' of our rooks.
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Elegant male chaffinch
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For a couple of weeks twice a year this site enjoys a view of the setting sun. Enjoy this moment with the female pheasant who is finding her supper as the light will soon be gone!
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For a couple of weeks twice a year this site enjoys a view of the setting sun. Enjoy this moment with the female pheasant feeding in the dimming light as the male guards her.
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These 3 female Pheasant were feeding around the bottom of the tree stump when the one on the left started walking towards the male stomping in across the meadow from the left ...
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So we assume that this was consensual if a bit rough on the top of the female pheasant's head. He spent about 5 seconds 'doing his thing'.
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Over several hours this Jackdaw stopped off at the tree stump with these 3 pieces of twig. We have not found a nest in this area, but we already know pairs are using one of 2 little Owl boxes and the Barn Owl box, and 2 pairs are fighting over the Tawny Owl box! C'est La Vie
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Goldfinches have unusually stayed here for the whole winter. Beautiful.
We don't remember catching one with open beak towards the camera before
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The now warm slates have brought out the insects from underneath and this pied Wagtail catches some sort of fly for the camera. The 2 images at the right are only about one fifth of a second apart, the last about 1 second later
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This Badger unusually appeared at the bottom-of-hedge site in a position where you can see it all.
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The Grey squirrels continue their competitive antics. If the upper squirrel had jumped from a tree branch it would be much more blurred, so it jumped this high from the perch.
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This male Mallard duck gave up harassing a pair in flight and did a rather nice sweep to land on the bank of the duck-shaped pond. This is an accurate montage at about 7 fps at the start (top right) for 5 frames then alternate frames for the next 3 and then 3 frames skipped for the last.
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The landing, though, was a bit heavy - ducks landing on land often are. The thump will have been taken by the strong breastbone (called the 'keel') that provides attachments for the powerful wing muscles. The back end bounces up showing the legs.
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A couple of fox portraits this week, one at each ground level sites.
First an adult in the bottom of hedge site.
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A couple of fox portraits this week, one at each ground level sites.
Second, at the 'woodland' site this appears to be a juvenile fox.
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Dear oh dear - who needs a preen after his bath then?
The bird probably rushed over when he saw a human - an opportunity
for an easy meal!
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A male Great Spotted woodpecker in an unusual and not very elegant position, possibly looking down to see where more food has been pushed into bark.
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This female Mallard duck, unusually not being shadowed by a male, saw us approaching and did this take off, only to land on a path about 20 metres further away. The montage is about 20% longer than 'accurate' in order not to overlap the birds images. Images where at about 4 fps - this is 1.25 seconds of action.
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In the same sunshine this pair of Mallard ducks decided to move to another pond as we approached. Before our approach ...
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And us a few metres closer. This montage was of a nearly vertical takeoff spread out so you can enjoy the action. Taken at about 7 fps.
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A little glory of colour - bird and sky.
A pair of pheasants (not that he has only the one 'girl') collecting
their supper.
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The late start to the season has the farmer out harrowing, seed sowing and rolling
in an intense week of ground disturbance. This heron also liked the opportunity for
some easy to catch protein from the freshly turned soil, and didn't
seem the least bit fazed by being surrounded by black-headed gulls.
No sign of any Frogs or Newts for us at all this year, and the Herons have not
had their usual feast. Ponds have been frozen for just about every night
for many weeks.
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Before the field was harrowed we sighted this Hare at least 50 metres away in the stubble. It took a look at us and ambled away showing us only it's rear end!
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Long-tailed tits are appearing at all the peanut feeders and generally around the site in larger numbers than previous years.
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This is one pair of Mallard ducks regularly seen at on and moving between the ponds. Here in an atypical moment of bright sunshine in a gloomy and cold Spring.
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In the Spring we often see pairs of Mallard ducks feeding in the ponds,
with the more hungry female (building herself for egg-production)
diving completely underwater to grab sunken food.
In this sequence she went down with a splash & stayed underwater for
about 3 seconds and popped back up roughly where she submerged.
The guarding male often dabbles at items her plunge brings to the
surface. Sometimes an angled dive with little splash is followed
by her swimming up to 2 metres underwater before re-appearing -
on one occasion surfacing right under the male!
Unless you have an 'HD' screen you will have to scroll down to see the
5 slices of images that we chose.
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"Whoopie!"
Quite a find in the snow - a whole peanut that this Great Tit can just about
grip in it's beak to carry off.
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We used to see Red-legged Partridge quite regularly, but now its an 'event' We saw one in the daytime walking up one of the farm's hedge side without realising that it has already photographed itself in our own hedge bottom.
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One of our at least 2 fox visitors probably enjoying the smell of 'mouse' as it looks for a 1:30 a.m. feed ('lunch' for a fox?)
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