Archived & Upcoming Images of the Day
A few Tree-sparrows were feeding on the blossom flowers, but the blossom hid
most of the activity.
Is this Tree Sparrow adorning the Blossom, or the other way round?
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We have several Cherry trees on our patch. These near the edge of the wooded area make a wonderful show of blossom.
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Cherry Blossom detail.
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Cherry Blossom detail.
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We first spotted this Bee-fly flying around the shrubs in a sunny patch. Fortunately it landed on this desiccated Oak leaf, possibly to warm itself in the sun, and we caught this view with the interesting shadows of the wings.
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Early Spring brings Bee-flies out to hover over anything, photographers included. They are not bees, but true flies that mimic bees. The long proboscis is not a sting, and the insect in completely harmless to humans.
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The range of wing movement of the Bee-fly seems to be very small - this montage includes the full range of up and down movement.
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Old concrete tracks have their uses - this strip of Violets is growing well in a decades old crack.
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There are primroses smiling up at us all over the site.
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There seem to be quite a lot of male Brimstone butterflies waking from their winter sleep. Rarely stopping in their search for a mate, they do occasionally need to stop for a re-fuel, here on a group of Forget-me-not flowers.
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Under an Oak tree at the edge of the meadow is a carpet of Forget-me-nots of which this is one edge. Smaller self-seeded carpets are popping up all over the partly shaded area of the meadow.
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This male Reeve's Muntjac Deer walked quietly away from the humans arriving at the end of 'his' path. Just below the eye to our left you can see the scent gland bulging open.
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Lost in the dark of the trail camera original were the antlers of this Roe Deer. We have seen quite a lot of 'larger than Muntjac' hoof slots in the endless mud, but this is our first 'sighting'. This species is bigger than Muntjac, has no facial mask, and no obvious tail.
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We seem to be 'Rook-Ridden' this year, with all of the old nest sites refurbished or built again at the same site, plus several new nesting sites in the mature Black Poplars. This new site is in a medium sized Willow tree over the main pond.
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On a day of heavy rain, this Rook picks up one of thousands of broken twigs
lying all over the woodland floor.
The smudged image results from water and mud splashed onto the glass
protecting the camera by a strong wind, despite being protected by a
20cm overhanging slate.
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Next morning this Rook has obtained a twig (in the beak) to add to the nest.
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All three of our 'regular' owls making landing on the meadow post.
The sizes of the Owl images are all at the same scale.
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Landing accomplished, the restless Little Owl did not stay, but the larger Owls spent several minutes in a quiet search for some imprudent rodent.
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A Male Reeve's Muntjac Deer rests quietly on the island of the main pond.
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This 28 image sequence is of a Reeve's Muntjac Deer contentedly feeding at the back of the pond and then wandering over the Iris roots to rest on the Island of the pond.
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This corvid lands with a thump next to the distracted Wood Pigeon.
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3 minutes later we have just this one lovely Wood Pigeon showing us the underside of it's wings.
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A male Reeve's Muntjac Deer spent a quarter of an hour resting and chewing the cud on the island of the main pond, easily reached by stepping on the Iris roots
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A male Reeve's Muntjac Deer spent a quarter of an hour resting and chewing the cud on the island of the main pond. Finally disturbed by hearing the crunch of shoes on gravel at the front of the house, he made a quiet withdrawal into the undergrowth.
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A surprise for us - we have 2 male Reeve's Muntjac Deer.
These two pics taken 4 hours apart show on the left a Deer with his
little antlers (made of real bone) visible above the ears, whilst the male
on the right still has his antlers growing under skin (known by the lovely
term 'In Velvet') to the left of his ears.
Muntjac Deer don't have a 'breeding season' - their Fawns can be born throughout
the year, so the cycle of Antler growing is not synchronised for a
'Rut'.
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"Where's that flea?"
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The Tawny Owl visits the perch at the kitchen window. The wings are partly folded as the Owl lands.
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A Midnight Tawny Owl stays on the Meadow Post for a few minutes. The wings are partly folded as the Owl lands.
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A new pair of Rooks suddenly started a brand new nest a few metres from an established one. It is only clearly visible from one vantage point you see here. We caught the start with not many twigs in place, but only a day later it was quite developed. The third caught one of the builders 'on site' and by only the forth day it looked ready for 'interior decoration' - lining with leaves.
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6 days later in high winds (not quite a 'storm' but a definite 'branch swayer') the nest tumbled out of the tree and we found it on the concrete track, here rolled over to see into the 'cup'. It didn't disintegrate so was nicely woven together - just not adequately anchored to the tree. Next day the site in the tree was still vacant, but another morning forward we were amazed to see a partially built replacement at the same site. Another 24 hours on at least twice as many sticks have been woven in. We hope what might be a 'starter-home' gets re-built better at the second try.
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The most developed Rooks nest near the house is now clearly being incubated. Here for just a minute the birds 'canoodled' on an adjacent branch before one went back to settle on the nest.
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We first saw a Brimstone Butterfly on 26 March, but this is our first pic of one (a male) feasting on one of many Primroses adorning the front garden.
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This Buzzard glides by slowly turning left but obviously finding something to it's right of intense interest, bending it's neck to watch.
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The local Tawny Owl visits the meadow post towards the camera downwind of the post.
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Next night the camera is upwind of the post, so this Barn Owl arrives with back to camera. We rarely see Barn Owls move their feet after landing, but their wonderful necks and body can twist to let this one look back at the camera
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Wet and blustery weather seems to have brought in several male pheasants to find some cover on our patch.
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Wet and blustery weather seems to have brought in several male pheasants to find some cover on our patch.
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"Penny plain, Tuppence coloured"
Wet and blustery weather seems to have brought in several male pheasants to find
some cover on our patch. Corvids and Pheasants mostly seem to tolerate each
other as here.
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After the rain, a male Pheasant inspects the waterlogged ground. Note the reflection of the red Wattles in the water at the bottom of the frame
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Walking in the quiet of early morning of Easter Sunday this Road-kill Rabbit was lying on the main road still reasonably intact. A bucket and spade transported it to the meadow camera site where it lay mostly untouched for the rest of that day. Then a magpie (top image) and Carrion Crows all pecked off a bit, before the arrival of 'our' young Fox who it seems was strong enough to drag it off to we-know-not-where a couple of hours before dawn.
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A wet female Blackbird has pulled a wet Earthworm out of the wet mud!
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We haven't seen any very light coloured Buzzard for at least a year. Here it is being made unwelcome, as usual, by one of the local Rooks.
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A closer view of the light coloured Buzzard shows the wings in a shorter and broader configuration, probably better for gliding rather than 'shaking off' the Rook.
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The sky is BIG - it is surprising how rarely things cross each
other, so this line-of-site crossing was too much to resist.
This montage is genuine, but the paths of the plane and Buzzard
are skewed to make the action clearer. Photographed at about 7fps.
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A few Spring flowers the Squirrels haven't eaten yet include clumps of Primroses.
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One of thousands of Blackthorn flowers starting to emerge in patches in the hundreds of metres of our hedges around us.
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The Lombardy Poplar Trees planted along the farm road a few years ago have produced Catkins for the first time this year.
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After a couple of weeks of absence the Tawny owl visited for 7 minutes before
diving down to the short grass on the right side of the post.
Photographing a bird leaving like this is just luck - beam breaks react much
more slowly to the beam returning than being broken - here the next timed
picture just happened to occur at the right moment.
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A small flock of at least 6 Tree Sparrows continue to wander around the plot. Here a couple of them lined up as if for a photo!
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A small flock of at least 6 Tree Sparrows continue to wander around the plot.
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3 of 'our' Tree Sparrows (genuine single frame) each with a little seed in the beak.
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A true 'togetherness' moment for this pair of Mallard ducks sharing the supper table.
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A Dunnock sings his territorial song from this hedge-top.
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A small flock of at least 6 Tree Sparrows wander around the plot, seen mainly at this site in the meadow and occasionally at bird tables. Here a male Blackbird watches them.
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The first decently warm day brought out the Bumble Bees. We seem to have a colony of this species recently arrived in the UK.
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The first decently warm day brought out the Bumble Bees. We seem to have a colony of this species recently arrived in the UK.
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Spring has Sprung - the Primroses are flowering
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In odd corners of the paths Celandines smile up at us.
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This is one of the tiny daisies that some people seem to think 'spoil' their pristine grass. This little flower was the only one we could find at the edge of the farmers crop.
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Now the nests are built, its all down to comfort and maintenance. Here a Rook collects and carries away a large beakful of last years leaves.
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The Blackbird's nest is much smaller than a Rooks, and needs 'lighter' lining. Here the Blackbird spent several minutes collecting an ever increasing amount of dead grass before, to our surprise, not flying off with it, but just walking through the bottom of the nearby hedge.
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A head-on view the beakful forming a somewhat untidy but otherwise impressive 'handlebar moustache'
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A lovely Song Thrush.
We have found at least one of the 'Anvils' a small paving slab under an
evergreen that not used for a couple of years. A week later, as we
finalise this, all the snail shells have gone! We understand from a BBC
documentary about eggs that some Tits and other birds crunch up snail shells in their
Gizzards to absorb the Calcium to make their egg shells. We guess that one or
more birds found this already smashed up resource.
A discussion on the subject can be found at George Pilkington's site at
http://nurturing-nature.co.uk/gardening-for-wildlife/birds-need-calcium-to-lay-their-eggs-where-do-they-get-it-from/
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