Archived & Upcoming Images of the Day
Is this juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker watching the wasp?
Is the bird planning to try and catch it?
We wish we knew!
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This juvenile Great Tit is struggling with the weight of a stale pea-pod, leaning back to counter-balance.
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Small Copper butterflies have only visited here in the last few years and provide a welcome splash of colour.
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This female Southern Hawker Dragonfly laying eggs on the Iris fronds well above (say 0.5 metre) the water surface. We have only previously seen them laying on near water-level sodden dead wood.
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The first of the year's Ruddy Darter Dragonfly glowing in the fickle sunlight.
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An unusual excess of Ragwort in our meadow brought with it an unprecedented number of Cinnabar caterpillars. Ragwort is poisonous to some mammals, but it is the only food plant of these caterpillars.
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An unusual excess of Ragwort in our meadow brought with it an unprecedented number of Cinnabar caterpillars. Ragwort is poisonous to some mammals, but it is the only food plant of these caterpillars.
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In this Sparrowhawk's left talon is a large and probably not yet dead rodent (we think a vole) it has just caught on the top of the tree stump. 2 hours after dawn the summer woodland is still cloaked in shadow - the rodent was taking a chance being out in the light.
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A daytime fox giving us a look at that impressive canine.
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The fox regularly visits this site about half an hour after we put out food.
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"Run Rabbit, Run Rabbit, Run, Run, Run ..."
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A pair of Blackbirds are now feeding young in an overgrown ivy on the south side of the house. This may be the male from that nest about 50m away, or another from a nest we know nothing about.
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We are not sure what the male Chaffinch (left) is doing with or to this female, but knowing their nature we expect he is un-gallantly shoving her off the food!
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There are several species of Burnet Moth, the most common types differentiated by the number of spots on a single side (not BOTH sides like counting spots on ladybird carapaces). This one was using it's proboscis to drink nectar from the thistle flower, accompanied by two hover-flies.
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One of the Marmalade Hoverflies ... err ... hovering.
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This a young fox around midnight apparently licking a Leopard slug. More adult foxes completely ignore slugs, but maybe they have to learn for themselves that they taste bad?
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Spider on the shell of a
Snail clambering on
Potato peel resting on the
Tree stump top
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Foxes have been visiting afternoons and early nighttime. This one seems to be staring at the camera.
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We sometimes smear peanut butter on the end of the log, and here the Fox licks it off.
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A juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker peers down the side of the tree-stump. The bird may be looking for food pushed into the bark as we do at another post.
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The juvenile Green Woodpecker had this wing stretch, waited a few seconds, and then took to the wing.
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We have a lot of Ragwort in flower this year (and we will cut most of the heads before they seed to prevent it taking over!). Despite the plant being poisonous to some animals, the flowers obviously deliver thoroughly palatable nectar to this Peacock butterfly.
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The delicate on the delicate.
The tiny weight of this Comma Butterfly is about 0.25 gram
(See Weights of Insects)
but this is sufficient to substantially pull down the grass seed head.
The insect is photographed from below showing the left hand 'comma'
but is back lit so you also see the orange pattern from the top of the wing.
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A Comma butterfly enjoying nectar from a blackberry flower. The characteristic white 'comma' marking are on the underside of the wing and are not visible on the perched insect with wings 'open'.
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Taken indoors in flight, this shows the undersides of the Comma Butterfly's wings, including the white 'comma' on both sides of the insect at once.
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This fox is currently a daily visitor at this site an hour or so after we have laid down food. Here though it's attention has been diverted from the ground by something in the tree or on the flashgun box. Notice the slit irises indicating still in daylight
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This fox also visits the other ground level site, sometimes staying for half an hour in the half light. Notice the partially open Irises in a dark patch of woodland as dusk falls.
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The Angle Shades moth is an old favourite visitor. We include this 'incidental' picture of it on the outside of a box because you can clearly see the curled proboscis they share with butterflies.
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An Angle-Shades moth turning in flight.
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Early Thorn moths vary in appearance with sex and brood This male shows lovely rich orange brown.
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This White Satin Moth was hanging like this from a grass seed head a couple of metres from the moth trap in which we caught another. We like the pretty black and white ringed legs.
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One of the two White Satin Moths obliged with a flight for us.
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This is a Poplar Hawk Moth as if taking off from the thistle. If you look for this insect in a reference book DON'T look for the orange patches - the resting position of the moth has the rear wings partly in front of the forewings, hiding the orange for use in startling attackers.
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Another Poplar Hawk Moth this time shown with Ragwort flowers for scale.
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This female Mallard seems to fly in most days, visit the main and duck-shaped ponds to up-end or dive for corn in the water, & then depart.
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Out first sighting of a Comma butterfly this year, atypically perched over a pond on the Hop Sedge
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The hot weather has produced a show of perhaps 100 of various 'brown' butterflies over our meadow. Here are a pair of Meadow Brown butterflies mating - you can see the coupling of the abdomens just below the inverted V where their wings cross at the bottom.
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The Green-veined White butterfly has been a bit of a rarity here - maybe the arable farming around us has encouraged them. Anyway, along our track-side we found this one feeding on the rampant Blackberry brambles.
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Sharing a thistle flower for a moment, this pair of mating Soldier Beetles are joined for a few seconds by a Small Skipper Butterfly collecting supper.
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This White Plume Moth was caught in the daytime and shows how the filaments on the wing struts lay over one another to make a (admittedly weak) aerodynamic structure.
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After release this same White Plume Moth decided it liked the post of our conservatory gate and was still there when we went to bed, but gone next morning.
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A Spinach moth (which doesn't mean it has anything to do with the vegetable), has a rather subtly marked forewing.
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This is a Common Footman Moth in flight. Apparently they appear anywhere that there are soft fruit bushes.
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This startlingly coloured Elephant Hawk-moth obliged with this nice portrait hanging from the end of a hawthorn twig.
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Once this Elephant Hawk-moth had warmed itself up fluttering its wings on the hawthorn, it obliged with a few photos in flight - this one is of it flying towards camera.
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