Archived & Upcoming Images of the Day
The sweet sound of Skylarks help you find them in the sky as they rise up to defend their territory with music.
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Skylarks ascending are reasonably predictable, but descents are erratic, very hard to follow, and the focus changes very fast. So here we were lucky (= lots of tries) to get this bird aerobraking to land in the corn crop.
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Here one of two Pied Wagtails hunting on the disused concrete track seemed to be finding plenty to eat along the edge of the grass.
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Rooting about on a leaf strewn woodland path, this male Blackbird found a good sized worm. It took less than a minute to swallow it whole.
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We haven't seen a Sparrowhawk well for months, but here it made a two-way flyby. Sparrowhawks fly very fast, and having no reference to space the image accurately, we have just tried for an interesting arrangements.
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We haven't seen a Sparrowhawk well for months, but here it made a two-way flyby. Sparrowhawks fly very fast, and having no reference to space the image accurately, we have just tried for an interesting arrangements.
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We haven't seen much of Little Egrets this year, though they are frequently seen a mile or two to the south. Anyway, this one was very relaxed, standing on one leg, reacted as we appeared but relaxed again when we kept our distance.
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The Little Egret finally departed and was lost from view.
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On an unusually warm Spring day we only managed to catch 3 male orange-tip Butterflies, just one of which was obliging enough to fly through our IR trigger beam while still in the photo-frame.
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On an unusually warm Spring day we only managed to catch 3 male orange-tip Butterflies,
just one of which was obliging enough to fly through our IR trigger beam while still
in the photo-frame.
In this image the Orange-tip Butterfly is nearly upside down showing us the
marvellous green tracery that appears on only the underside of the rear wings.
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This individual Orange-tip Butterfly just wouldn't fly in our kit, but while perched on a soft artists paint brush he gave us a good view of his proboscis curled up in the manner that it is stored between feeds. We have inserted a primrose leaf to mostly hide the bristles of the brush - the double edge effect on the leaf is real - not some 'photoshopping' artefact.
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On the OUTSIDE of the Moth trap was alighted a Purple Thorn Moth, a new visitor here. This little montage shows this attractive creature in three separate flights.
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Shortly before midnight, a Tawny owl made a stopover at the perch outside the kitchen window.
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A Patch of Celandine flowers in the dappled sunlight casting their shadows on their own leaves.
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Along the Bridleway 200m to our East runs a deep (maybe 2m) drainage ditch. We caught this drift of yellow as we walked by, and a scramble half-way down the slope bagged this lovely splash of yellow Cowslips and Dandelions.
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A Magpie landing on the tree-stump provides a detailed view of the black/grey edges to the flight feathers.
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Iridescent Magpie feathers - blue on the wings and green on the tail as usual.
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Iridescent Magpie feathers - blue on the wings and green on the tail as usual.
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A female Blackbird collecting material for her nest.
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A pair of Robins seem to have decided to make a nest in one of the miniature conifers near the South of the house. Here is one of them collecting one of last years leaves.
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A Skylark apparently effortlessly soars in the sky.
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As it ascends, this skylark rode the wind across our patch.
It was tricky to align against the soft cloud edges, but we think this is an
accurate representation of about 1 second of flight.
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The White form of Snakes-head Fritillary seems to have become the dominant form here. Here is a double flower on one stem.
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A fortnight later we have not found ANY of the normal coloured Snakes-head Fritillary flowers this year, though this doesn't mean they are not hiding somewhere else. This is our biggest clump hiding under a shrub.
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3 Canada Geese circled past before turning into the wind to land in or by a lake by the brook.
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A Pair of Canada Geese make a Flyby before disappearing into the distance. Accurately spaced at about 7 fps
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As the pair of Canada Geese flew away their overlapping wings made some interesting patterns that we have tried to turn into an interesting 'design'.
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A Pair of Rooks contentedly guarding their nest a couple of metres below. They are facing into a strong easterly wind (left to right in this image), and the attractive red catkins that male Black Poplar trees make long before the leaves emerge, are being blown almost horizontal.
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The male Skylarks have been putting on an enjoyable show.
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The male Skylarks have been putting on an enjoyable show.
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This is a fairly accurate montage of this Skylark initially dropping down and then using the speed gained to climb up again.
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Blue Tit in Blackthorn Blossom.
Which is the more beautiful?
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A Blue Tit, crest raised, decorating the Blackthorn twig, or is it the other way around?
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A long-tail Tit posing nicely in the dappled sunlight.
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Here the Long-tail Tit is running the beak along a tail feather to 'zip' it back up. Wonderful things are feathers!
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Finally the Long-tailed Tit departs. It was all too quick for the cameraman to pan down to follow the flight.
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The idea of Sun Pillars' is new to us. So when we saw one around Dawn on 6 April 2017 we gave a camera some early morning exercise. Next morning we were surprised to find this unusual effect widely reported. You can read about them and see more pics at this non-paywalled section of the Telegraph Newspaper.
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Morning Pear and Evening Walnut.
Our Grey squirrels only want (and get) the best :-(
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This Grey squirrel seems to have hit the Jackpot with 'two apples'.
It is actually a pair of overripe sections that have not been completely cut through.
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And to finish off how about a Blueberry.
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Three moments from a female Great Spotted Woodpecker exploring the already dead bifurcate of our recently pollarded Willow. Our favourite is just right of centre sticking out horizontally.
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Cherry Blossom is now out in all it's glory.
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On this twig you can see the whole sequence from red buds through to the fully open flowers.
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'Our' magnificent male Pheasant - err - grubbing in the mud for food. The 'ear' tufts appear to share the same iridescent green as the edges of the white collar.
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Morning sun is catching this female Pheasants tail and rear feathers.
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An interloper arrives at the Rook nest, and a shriek from the resident bird brings along the furious partner to see off the interloper, landing on a branch once honour was satisfied. The claws on the upper right bird in the right image have not yet closed around the wood.
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Crisis over, the two Rooks have a little (noisy) celebration. The bird on the right is leaning over the leaning branch with beak pointing downwards.
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The arrival of Arable farming brings it's own set of disappointments, but for us a great plus in an explosion of the number of Skylarks.
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The arrival of Arable farming brings it's own set of disappointments, but for us a great plus in an explosion of the number of Skylarks.
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This Skylark started a traverse before gaining much height, singing all the way.
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This is an accurate montage of a Skylark flight over a bit over 1 second. The turning of head, slowing down and dropping at the end seems to be genuine.
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Another quite complicated twig on the way to the Rook nest. Birds carrying twigs are weight and aerodynamically compromised and really HAVE to land into the wind (right to left here) and will fly past the nest and come back, as here.
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Delivery of the same twig to enlarge the growing Rook nest.
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We have observed that Rooks normally break living wood off trees to build their nests, but here this short stubby piece of branch is fairly typical of the cuttings from our hedge cutters.
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A second flurry of Rook nest building in better weather has provided the
opportunity for some photos of the building process.
Here is the twig on the way to the nesting tree ...
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Here the 'delivery' of the same twig to the nest.
Once they arrive the birds spend some time working the new wood into the nest,
but they build the nest from 'inside' so we can't see what they do.
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Long-tail Tits seem to be favourites. Here is one perched on the tip of a hedge branch.
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This year 2 Blue Tits are often spotted 'playing' together on these two 'twigs'. The twisted twig is from a Corkscrew Hazel tree, while the spiky branch is one of last years Blackberry stems.
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This year 2 Blue Tits are often spotted 'playing' together on two 'twigs' or
here together on the spiky branch of one of last years Blackberry
stems.
Each year a pair of Blue Tits nest in a wall cavity over the oil boiler, and
it is likely that this is the same pair.
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Here a Dunnock was collecting nesting material in some ground at the front of the house. It looks like a bit of polyester fibre matting used to protect the Butyl pond liners from damage.
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Here is a Dunnock on a twig at the top of a hedge.
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A slightly delayed feeding time - a pair of Mallard ducks fly by (at 7 fps so they fly at s-p-e-e-d) but decide against landing until the humans have gone.
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A pair of Mallard Duck visit the main pond perhaps a couple of times a day. Feeding is the main item on the agenda - as here.
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We mostly see Mallard Ducks feeding in the main pond, but here a female (the edge of the male a metre left is cropped out) exploring one of the feeding sites at the end of the daylight.
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One of two Tawny Owl visits to the kitchen window perch 13 minutes apart.
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One of two Tawny Owl visits to the kitchen window perch 13 minutes apart.
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A Magpie inspecting the bare tree-stump. The iridescent blue wing feather and green tail turning multi-coloured near the tip seems to be characteristic of all Magpies here.
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