Archived & Upcoming Images of the Day
This lovely Barn Owl made this landing but stayed for only a few seconds. The bird returned 5 minutes later, and stayed on the post top for about 20 minutes, un-bothered by the camera flash.
 single landing + 5 minutes later landing & 20 mins stay 01 of 21 (crop)(r+mb id@768).jpg)
A Jackdaw about to land on the peanut feeder perch.
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A young Rabbit in the hours before midnight.
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This Kestrel came flying towards us from the East making not very attractive images, but turned South to be bathed in light from the lowering sun for this little unbroken sequence presented much closer together than reality.
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A Buzzard landed on a branch adjacent to a pigeon which took fright as well it might from a much bigger bird with all those 'sharp bits'.
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The Buzzard then got disturbed from it's rest by a territorial Jackdaw. The jackdaw started about 2 buzzard lengths behind the buzzard in this accurate montage. We left the Jackdaw out for the next 2 frames as they overlaid the image of the buzzard in the preceding frames, but the Jackdaw was climbing fast and re-appears above the Buzzard for the last 2 frames.
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This Fox is in such pristine condition that it is most likely to be his or her first year. Now the Fieldfares, Squirrels, Foxes and Muntjac deer have stripped the orchard of windfall apples, those we leave at the camera sites are suddenly worth putting up with the funny noise and flash from the camera for the meal.
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A female Muntjac Deer picking up a lump of rotten apple. This female is much thinner than the last one we saw, so is either a different non-pregnant animal or she has left her fawn somewhere.
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The Fieldmouse (Wood Mouse) on the stone is obviously cooperating with the claws of the mouse standing on the ground, so we read this as a little affectionate Canoodling.
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The Red Kite's languid flight eventually took it almost overhead of us. There is no doubt the bird was keeping it's eyes on the strange creatures (us) below.
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Did the Red Kite want another look at us before it departed? We doubt it, but it gave us a final look at this glorious bird (arranged for effect rather than accuracy) before it drifted South towards Milton Keynes.
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This Red Kite made a languid passage over the surrounding fields. There is about 1.5 seconds of flight here.
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The Red Kite makes a slightly awkward rise and twist in flight as it avoids the 11kV power lines. This accurately positioned sequence is over about 1.5 seconds
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This Barn Owl was photographed by an automated camera just as it
was about to land on the post top an hour before dawn. The bird
stayed for a couple of minutes (2 more images) before gliding away.
The missing wings tips are not 'artistic'
cropping - this is the top of the camera frame.
 landing and 2 minute visit 1 of 3 (crop)(r+mb id@768).jpg)
Two barn owls made 4 visits in a single night - more than our WEEKLY average. The first 3 visits span midnight, all made by the Owl with a right leg ring. In the early hours another barn Owl with no rings makes a 10 minute stay.
 3 short visits + (no ring) 10min visit (montage)(r+mb id@1024).jpg)
We first saw this Kestrel high over one of our Black Poplar trees as we walked up the path over the meadow. Judging by the disapproving stare, we had just disturbed his hunt.
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This Kestrel likes to hunt from the long and thin branch that bends down substantially under the bird's weight. The branch the bird is standing on is the same one as the one springing back up. As he took off he flew away, so we have spread the images to the right. Enjoy the leg positions as he folds them away.
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A look at the tail suggests that this is a Juvenile male Kestrel starting to moult into adult colours. He was hovering (into the wind as always - hence the bird's name 'Windhover') to our North West with the sun to the South (it was about mid-day). From about 100 frames we selected the best few and from them constructed this little impression.
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A solitary Jackdaw arrived and started bothering the kestrel who started to fly off to the South. The Jackdaw followed, making Lunges at the Kestrel. About a third of a mile away they were still at it when we caught this sequence of them both diving to ground but levelling out before a collision with the trees.
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We were lucky to get these images of a Barn Owl through the descending mist that we have mostly 'Photoshopped' out.
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This is the first good sighting of an adult Green Woodpecker this year. This is a male probing the soft ground at the edge of the main pond, not that all the grassy paths aren't soft after all the rain.
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Ah - not our favourite visitor & a about a year since we have seen a Tabby Cat. Look at the completely open Irises it uses in the dark. This was taken shortly after midnight.
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Two little sweetie fieldmice (wood mice) enjoying tea together in the twilight. We have no evidence that they encountered the Tabby cat seen at another site 6 hours later
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While standing on a mound giving a view to the South and East this Kestrel appeared from 'nowhere' and flew past, giving the cameraman a bit of a 'glare'. The right hand three images are correctly positioned at 5fps.
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A much closer look at the first image shows us what we didn't realise until we started making the montage - the kestrel is carrying it's lunch! In the talons is what we think is a Fieldmouse (Wood Mouse), head hanging down beneath the bird and rear legs and mouse tail under the bird tail. We are unsure about the sex of this bird, and think it might be a juvenile. Except in the breeding season Prey is normally eaten 'on-the-spot' so our appearance probably persuaded the bird to move on with prey in talons.
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A typical Grey Squirrel feeding session - 25 minutes stuffing itself and then a take-away from the fruit bowl.
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We moved here in November 1990, and our first 'new' bird we saw was a Fieldfare, attracted to the existing apple and plum trees. They have been reliable visitors every year, sometimes easier to photograph than others. This one was high in a Black Poplar tree in an atypical hour or 2 of sunshine. The size of the flocks has sadly diminished along with many other birds.
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A Muntjac Deer visit, this time a female (no mini-tusk or mini-antlers) at the woodland site. A partial image at another camera suggests that she may be in the late stages of pregnancy.
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The saying goes 'Red sky in Morning, Shepherd's warning'
And lo - it rained later!
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A zoom on the sun showed the large pair of sunspots near the centre of
the disc currently circulating. The sun turns in about 24 days relative to
earth & this is the second appearance.
Do not use binoculars, telescopes or similar to look at the sun, or
stare at it, or it might be the last thing you see :-(
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Following some changes that allow the kit to photograph the birds
as they land, the Barn owl graced us with a landing on the post,
and stayed for 6 minutes before exiting at speed to the left out
of site of other cameras.
We have mirrored the
montage - it felt more natural to us Western Left-to-right
scribblers
 landing & 6 minute visit (mirrored montage)(r+mb id@1024).jpg)
The Barn owl with the right leg ring made 2 visits just a few minutes apart.
 visits twice over 9 minutes (montage)(r+mb id@1024).jpg)
How like a child licking a sticky Lollypop (if the dietary pediatricians permit such treats nowadays). Although the rudimentary thumb is not sufficient to grasp a large item in one paw, it is clearly being used to maneuver the apple slice for maximum 'lickability'.
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Although the rudimentary thumb is not sufficient to grasp such a large item in one paw, it is clearly being used to help hold the piece of nut.
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A lurid Sunrise heralds yet another dreary November day.
Back in 1844 Poet Thomas Hood summed up November in London,
with smog instead of fog, but painfully on target:-
No sun - no moon!
No morn - no noon -
No dawn - no dusk - no proper time of day.
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member -
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds -
November!
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Saturday-Sunday night saw the dark-faced Tawny Owl visit twice an hour apart in the early evening. It stayed for a couple of minutes each time. A light fog arrived with the dusk, and got steadily thicker. The two images had the same processing so you can get an idea of how the Owl 'faded away'.
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2 visits by what we think are different foxes in the same night 6 hours apart. Welcome back after months of absence from the high quality photo sites.
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The patter of little claws announced the arrival of the Wagtails - a pair of White Wagtails (with grey rather than black backs). This one was flying between the roof ridges with a running takeoff. There were several flies around the bird but there was no obvious attempt to catch one.
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Another ridge to ridge flight.
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The Barn owl with right leg ring made an extended (at least 10 minute) visit in the early evening. The bird was unusually active with lots of moving about on the top and bending down.
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Grumpy Bunny!
This is undoubtedly an anthropomorphic interpretation,
but can you see it any other way?
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The Brown Rat wants to be a film star, here showing off it's prowess at pulling worms out of the ground.
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A new discovery in the now a few inches high crop - a hare can be spotted most mornings crouched in a scrape perhaps 30 metres from the farm road and ourselves.
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We can't work out the orientation of the Hare here even in the originals, but we thought it would be interesting to show the rows of the crop. Once the crop has grown a bit more this magical creature will be hidden from our eyes.
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4 days later saw the first heavy frost of the season. To our
surprise the Hare was still at it's scape just after dawn,
in among the heavily frosted crop. Brrrr.
The hare was present almost every day until our last sighting on
11 December 2014 - about 5 weeks. The clay soil became
waterlogged and we suspect his comfortable scrape became a
mud-bath and he went somewhere more comfortable (Updated 1 Jan
2015).
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