Archived & Upcoming Images of the Day
3 Reeves Muntjac Deer were wandering over the Oil-seed Rape crop using it as fodder. Whole areas are bare :-(. The single male is the one with short straight antlers (lower right top image). The Deer ambled away to the far corner of the field and eventually through the hedge to a wheat crop.
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Here is a detail of the male Reeves Muntjac Deer making his characteristic bark.
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In the rough and tumble of local duck ponds you rarely see pairs of Mallard ducks quietly together. But in the quieter rural settings they spend 'quality time' together until she has to spend most of her time incubating her eggs. He then stays away from her camouflaged plumage so as not to attract nest predators.
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First sighting of a Mallard Duck at the meadow site. He is still wet from a pond and has duckweed stuck to his feathers.
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An hour before sunset we now expect to see this pair of mallard Ducks arriving to gobble up the corn we threw in the pond earlier in the day.
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Love the 'ear' tufts on this proud male Pheasant. There are at least 9 female pheasants in our patch and he must be revelling in it!
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Our lovely male Pheasant searching the ground for some corn, or anything else edible
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We are suddenly seeing Red-legged partridges around the area, mostly in the distance or fleeing from us. This rear view provides a good look at the lovely patterning of the feathers.
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A Redwing brave enough to let us get within about 15m as we walked down our concrete track. You can't see much red in this back-lit view.
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An incidental Out of Focus pic of a Redwing showing his colours unusually well.
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A couple of Grey squirrels roll over and over in a fight, so engrossed that they
roll into the edge of the pond. The fight promptly stops and the Squirrels make
a prompt exit from the near freezing water and dash off in different
directions.
In the lower image you can see the water drops 'flying'.
The Chaffinch on the twig fallen in the water ignores the whole affair!
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Whee!
If we were this Rabbit we would be hurrying back to our nice warm Burrow,
so perhaps this is the need-for-speed.
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A Barn owl makes a beautiful entrance ...
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... and stays for about 10 minutes without moving the claws once settled.
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This is the second time, at different sites, that we catch a Blackbird (last time
the female, here the male) pulling a stretchy worm from the ground.
Why does such action always seem to fall off the edge of the frame!
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To a field north of the bridleway growing an Oil-seed Rape crop, we were delighted to spot a couple of Hares chasing along the far edge of the crop. At this stage the chased Hare was streaking along - this is barely more than half a second of travel. The chaser is way out of Frame to the right.
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More detail for the right-most image of the Hare in the montage.
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More detail for the second from the right image of the Hare in the montage.
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The Reeves Muntjac Deer male stares at the cameraman ...
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... before trotting away across the very patchy Oil-seed Rape crop.
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A badger in fine condition trundles his way through the night. Note one of the huge claws is catching the light under the head.
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6 Hours later a Badger wandered over the bare earth of a 25 year old pond spoil heap. There must be SOMETHING to draw these mammals to the mound other than the tempting smell of Rabbit in the burrows - probably worms and other invertebrates!
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This Polecat spent 30 minutes wandering over the mound - we can only think that the bare soil is 'alive' with worms and other invertebrates.
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A Rook on our telephone cable, peering at the ground!
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This is the first of the two nests near the house - resurrected from the remains of last years. One bird is on the nest, and the other bird is flying off.
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Now the Rook nests are built, the materials for the nest moves on to insulation and comfort - here goes a beakful of dried foliage for one of the nests.
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In the rain the Barn Owl spends a few minutes on the meadow post, raising and lowering the left leg twice probably as possible 'targets' come and go.
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First the Female Muntjac Deer checked for food in this scrape, and then a couple of hours later the male, with a much less pristine coat, tried the same place.
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The female Muntjac Deer stayed for several minutes, wandering around the site.
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We have occasionally startled coveys of Grey Partridges as we walk about,
but here the startling Red-legged Partridge visited this site one evening
along with 2 more (poor images cropped out).
Fantastic colours not enhanced by us.
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The 'blond' dominant male Pheasant hunts beneath the coating of snow, his tail encrusted with ice.
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If there is water - water bathe;
If there is dust - dust bathe;
If there is snow - Snow bathe.
Keeping those feathers in top condition is essential to fight the cold.
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If there is water - water bathe;
If there is dust - dust bathe;
If there is snow - Snow bathe.
Keeping those feathers in top condition is essential to fight the cold.
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Into the teeth of the blizzard this great Tit struggles along in search of food - the table still has corn and vegetable fat smeared over it. You can see the fine snow hitting his head - poor little sod!
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This tree sparrow can still find some sustenance as the flakes descend. We have picked up about 10 images of tree sparrows over a few days and they always seem to have one or more seeds in their beaks.
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Reaching the corner of the plot, down the gap between our internal hedge and the fence was this male Muntjac Deer giving the Cameraman a long hard stare before quietly deciding to move into the hedge on the left.
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Green Woodpeckers mostly feed by probing the ground for ants and other insects. Here the bird has scraped away some of the snow to get at the ground to probe it.
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A couple of Jackdaws out foraging in the snow.
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A particular lurid sunset with just the top third of the sun still showing.
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A few days later the Sunrise also made some interesting and threatening patterns in the sky.
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Even being out in snow doesn't cool the ardour of this pair of Robins.
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Love is - enjoying freezing together?
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Robins are basically aggressive birds who suppress antagonism to their breeding partner for a few months of family raising. So this is presumably an extra-family affair as these two Robins squabble over who 'owns' the bird table.
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During the snow all three local Owl species (Little, Tawny and Barn Owls) visited the meadow post top. Most of the pics were spoiled by snow crusted windows, driving snow or snow mist, but this Barn Owl timed the visit better.
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In the snow on the concrete access track we feature here 3 clear badger prints, complete with indents from the claws. The prints meandered along the track for about 50m.
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A montage of Badger(s) visiting a pond spoil heap over 3 days, looking for an easy meal while their supply of worms is mostly hiding under the frozen ground.
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A Song Thrush complete with snail in beak. We haven't found what we assume is a 'convenient' Thrush 'Anvil' as yet.
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All over the site Rabbits and (here) Grey squirrels find or make (by scratching at the snow) a piece of bare grass or soil, and than rake away at it until they find an insect or worm to fill that ever-empty tummy.
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A Robin launches itself from the snowy ground.
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A Buzzard about 100m away at the brook not quite as lost in the confusion of branches as usual.
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Not pleased to see us even 100m away, the Buzzard quietly launched and flew out of sight.
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Robins seem to 'light up' the hedges with their red and white breasts.
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This Magpie shows as an amazing range and vividness of iridescent colours in it's tail. We haven't changed the image beyond cropping it.
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High in the Black Poplar nearest the house we caught this moment of Courtship feeding. The male Rook (right) brings the female an offering which she accepts. We can only see a single corn grain in his beak and she may not be very impressed! It's the thought that counts!
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In better light, the pair of Rooks declaring ownership of the nest, the bird on the right beak is open to call his grating tone.
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From the house we watched this male Muntjac Deer wander along the back of the main pond, and finally trying some Laurel Leaves before disappearing from sight.
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From the house we watched this male Muntjac Deer wander along the back of the main pond, and finally trying some Laurel Leaves before disappearing from sight.
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The 'return' of the Little Owl (actual Species name) for just a few minutes. The ground has become frozen and partly covered in snow and we suspect that the bird's normal hunting patch is even less 'friendly' than ours.
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