Archived & Upcoming Images of the Day
This Comma butterfly, with proboscis down in the juice of a nearly hidden berry, is surprisingly well camouflaged - we only spotted it by chance when it flicked it's wings at a fly passing by.
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Our Barn owl box, originally used for nesting by Jawdaws, lost the side access panel and a pair of Stock Dove made a nest which now contains these two beautiful chicks.
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3 days later the smaller of the chicks has disappeared - the box is wide open to predation by crows or similar. But the larger bird seems to be doing well with the feather 'pins' grown substantially in the 3 days. When the birds have flown repairs will be in order.
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As the season for Fungi gets underway we found this glorious fruiting body at the edge of a grass path.
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Fruit for supper for this Grey Squirrel comes from the waste of Jam and preserve making. We have never found a good use for the Sloes which we could crop in their thousands (Sloe Gin is no good - we don't drink!).
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Climb on your food to reach the choice morsel.
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"O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?"
Who knows what is really going on ...
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Its no good - Fieldmice (Wood Mice) on their hind legs can look so twee.
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We have been inundated with Craneflies for the last few weeks. We saw this coupled pair land and we grabbed some photos.
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An unexpected moment as the Sparrowhawk landed facing the camera to give us this wonderful view. A look at the CCTV recording shows that it skimmed low over the main pond behind, landed here and stayed for about 1 minute before flying on.
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2 Days earlier at a similar time of day the Sparrowhawk had landed back to the camera. A CCTV recording showed he attacked a Tit standing by the feeder (right of this crop) but it escaped. After 30 seconds it jumped across to this position (firing the camera) where it spent nearly 5 minutes surveying the area before flying off.
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The Great Escape!
We haven't seen any owls for many months, and our first (and so
far only) sighting is this Tawny Owl trying to catch a
Fieldmouse (Wood Mouse).
The Owl is flying left to right with the feather-covered right
leg & claws near bottom right. We can't see the birds face at
the lower right. One wing reaches over the top of the frame
How do we know what the target prey was?
Look carefully at the wing tip middle left for the head of the
mouse facing left using it's leaping practice to save it's life
from the Owls' claws.
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A better look at the 'lucky' mouse leaping out of the clutches of the Tawny Owl.
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This carrot must be bigger than the entire alimentary canal of the grey squirrel!
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This Bank Vole has found a more modest piece of carrot to carry off to eat in safety. The nearby oak tree is smothered in the galls you see on the fallen leaf lower left.
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This looks like a heavy food parcel for a little vole, and is probably a leaf that has become coated in food. Still - possibly a days survival rations.
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A male Chaffinch banking in flight over the site.
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A male Chaffinch flies over the site - nicely in focus for once.
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This Swallow made a single flyby recorded here. The spacing is undoubtedly too close for the frame rate, but the bland sky provides no reference points for alignment.
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Delicious food - if you are a Blackbird!
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All those Carbohydrates and protein snacks on offer, but what the Blackbird really wants is this juicy Cranefly!
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What's next on the menu for this Great Tit?
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Whee!
We don't know whether rodent on the ground is a mouse or vole.
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Another Leopard slug gets licked for it's sweet slime?
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On a quiet morning around dawn we saw about 1000 Canada Geese in the distance and overhead. Unexpectedly we did not hear their strident calls in flight - only from the distant fields as they set off.
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On a quiet morning around dawn we saw about 1000 Canada Geese in the distance and overhead. Unexpectedly we did not hear their strident calls in flight - only from the distant fields as they set off.
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On a quiet morning around dawn we saw about 1000 Canada Geese in the distance and overhead. Unexpectedly we did not hear their strident calls in flight - only from the distant fields as they set off.
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On a quiet morning around dawn we saw about 1000 Canada Geese in
the distance and overhead. Unexpectedly we did not hear their
strident calls in flight - only from the distant fields as they set off.
Although a montage (for a blur on the two left birds) this is
what we saw - the bird feathers luminous in the glow of the
rising sun.
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Corn grain in paws, this fieldmouse (wood mouse) nibbles elegantly around midnight. Meanwhile 3 slugs radulate their way along in the wet after rain.
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Harrowing the ground after harvest brought out an assortment of gulls.
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An adult Great Black-backed gull flying ahead of a juvenile.
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This gull was following the adult Great Black-backed gull shown above, and we assume from size and general appearance that it must be a juvenile.
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Fieldmice (Wood Mice) at both ground level sites have started leaping about.
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Fieldmice (Wood Mice) at both ground level sites have started leaping about. Enjoy the shadow of the leaping mouse, perhaps 'guarding her honour' :-)
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Fieldmice (Wood Mice) at both ground level sites have started leaping about. Enjoy the shadow of the leaping mouse on the log - we have no idea why the mouse was in this position.
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Fieldmice (Wood Mice) at both ground level sites have started leaping about.
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This Grey Squirrel 'eating apple' looks lovely but isn't true. It was probably licking off the peanut butter stuck on the apple skin the evening before.
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Probably the same Squirrel the next evening at a ground level site some 10 metres from the tree stump.
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What we think is a single Fieldmouse (Wood Mouse) visiting the tree-stump top 5 times (skipping the first here) in 4 hours through midnight. Notice the peanut butter left front gradually disappearing. In the final (bottom right) frame the apple has been pushed out of frame but is still on the top.
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A Dunnock was the first daytime visitor to this heap of food already nibbled by the nighttime fieldmouse (wood mouse).
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Male chaffinches attack one another in various ways, and this moment caught them even closer than our image from a few days ago.
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Another image of chaffinches males fighting - here they are battling away both in flight above a spread of food.
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The Green Woodpecker(s) have been teasing us with calls as they fly away out of sight. But this juvenile spent about 15 minutes working its way down the path from the Duck-shaped pond toward the house probing the ground for food. Here we got a good view from indoors as it spent nearly a minute watching something overhead. A peer out of the house window never divulged what it could see. The tail provides the 'third leg' that allows the bird to lean back this far!
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A 'family' of 3 buzzards (it seems 2 adults and one juvenile) has suddenly resumed appearances. The bridleway fencing featured in many older photos was all ripped out a few years back, so some birds now sometimes use the crossbars of this 11kV 3 phase supply instead.
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Jackdaws & Rooks are not keen on buzzards, and generally try to harass them until they move on. We have never seen a buzzard perched on the wires - presumably too harsh on the feet for the bird's weight.
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This buzzard was flying over a freshly cut hedge just after harvest.
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An alert Rabbit - Looking forwards but listening backwards!
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We spotted this lovely bird clambering about in the 'hedge' outside the conservatory, and managed this Common Whitethroat through the window. No less sweet for being 'common'.
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The Buff-tip Caterpillar are now on consuming their third branch of the Lime tree. Enjoy the natural light shadows of the caterpillars on the other side of the leaf near the bottom.
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Next day they were still busy eating the Lime leaves, but 3 days later
we could not find any on the tree or ground.
According to our reference book "when nearly full grown and ready to pupate
they descend the tree and construct underground chambers in which they pass
the winter as Blackish-Brown pupae".
We will leave them in peace!
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An old female Common darter dragonfly warms herself in the sun. The mouth (left) is slightly open.
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Do fieldmice (wood mice) salivate in anticipation of a juicy meal? We think the earwig is about to be a midnight meal for the mouse, and we see saliva dripping from the mouse's mouth.
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This Blackcap male has made an appearance - our first sighting since a female in April. Blackcaps are 'new' here - only seen since 2011.
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A Grey Squirrel carefully nibbling what looks like a piece of nut.
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This is the same image as above cropped to show that he is definitely a male! If we put in the proper word we risk being classified as a X-rated site!
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