Archived & Upcoming Images of the Day
A Swallow making a lovely aerial twist into a dive.
(r+mb id@576).jpg)
A Swallow flying over head, photographed at about 7 fps. The gaps between the images have been closed up.
(r+mb id@768).jpg)
A male Chaffinch 'having a go' at another on the ground.
.jpg)
Generally, out of breeding season, Chaffinches are aggressive to other of their species. But here 3 each males and females seem to be feeding quietly together. Perhaps this bunch are just easy-going - our experience is that most creatures with complex behaviour also have varying personalities.
(r+mb id@1024).jpg)
Of about 15 images, we offer this 5 Fieldmice (Wood Mice) over 3 nights.
(r+mb id@1024).jpg)
Next night it was the turn of some Voles to be out and about. On the left we see a 'Short-tailed Field Vole' and on the right a 'Bank Vole'.
 + bank vole (montage)(r+mb id@768).jpg)
A Rabbit's tryst as darkness falls?
.jpg)
The red speck (a partly hidden Apple) just in front of the fox in the top frame appears seconds later firmly clamped in the foxes jaws.
(r+mb id@576).jpg)
The Fox arrived peacefully (left) is suddenly joined by a second Fox (with less marked tail) and a scuffle ensures. 5 minutes later just the original Fox regains his place.
(r+mb id@1024).jpg)
A badger at the end of the orchard finds a large windfall apple. It is obviously too large to swallow whole, so bites off a lump. The bottom frame is after the Badger has wandered off, and you can see the remains of the apple in the grass.
(r+mb id@768).jpg)
A female Migrant Hawker Dragonfly perched for a little portrait.
.jpg)
As in most years, there are several Migrant Hawker Dragonflies feeding on Midges over the meadow. This male perched long enough for a profile and full 'mug shot'.
(r+mb id@1024).jpg)
This female Migrant Hawker Dragonfly is eating her latest catch (some sort of Midge) while on the wing. Once she has sucked her prize dry she will drop the body and wings to the ground.
(r+mb id@1024).jpg)
One of several Migrant Hawker Dragonflies feeding over the meadow.
(r+mb id@576).jpg)
All of our Oak trees are producing Acorns almost entirely spoiled by Knopper Galls. We guess the early start to the season has spoiled the Oak tree 'strategy' of late start and early finish to minimise a plethora of diseases and insect infestations.
.jpg)
The Rose of Sharon is now producing seeds.
.jpg)
A female Sparrowhawk lands on the meadow post for an at most one minute visit in the evening light.
(r+mb id@576).jpg)
A female Sparrowhawk lands on the meadow post for an at most one minute visit in the evening light.
(r+mb id@576).jpg)
5 days after the evening visit we showed earlier, another visit by the Sparrowhawk, this time for at least 11 minutes in the early morning with completely different lighting. Here is a selection.
(r+mb id@768).jpg)
This days particular juicy foods attracts an assortment of insects.
.jpg)
Food on the top of the tree-stump here attracts a Red Underwing Moth to have a feed. These two moments 5 minutes apart and montaged.
(r+mb id@576).jpg)
We must stop deriding Wood Pigeon Nests as 'three sticks is enough'!
The meadow post automatic camera captured images of (presumably
just one) Wood Pigeon endlessly stopping on the top of the post
with 30 different twigs in little over 24 hours. The bird may of
course stopped off elsewhere as well, and we don't know where the
nest is. But enjoy 12 of the 'twigs' - its quite hard to see how
the bird can fly with some of the more awkward shapes.
 02-30 of 30 (montage)(r+mb id@1024).jpg)
A more detailed view of another of the 30 twigs we saw brought to the meadow post.
Over the next few days a few more twigs passed this way.
(r+mb id@576).jpg)
The Polecat makes a rare visit to one of the high quality photo sites, providing a sort of 'head and shoulders' portrait.
(r+mb id@768).jpg)
A perky and pristine Great Tit.
.jpg)
This male Chaffinch is flying in to land.
(r+mb id@768).jpg)
In the Red corner, a Juvenile Robin redbreast.
In the Blue corner, a great Tit.
Let battle commence - we have no idea what happened.
.jpg)
This female Kestrel made a sudden appearance, hunting over the recently harvested fields. While in our view she made about 7 hovers, each of only an atypically short 3 or 4 seconds, before sweeping across to another hovering position. Here, vertically stacked top to bottom, is one of the short hovers. As you can see the bird was unusually active in the blustery wind. These 3 taken in less than half a second.
(r+mb id@768).jpg)
Here the female Kestrel flies to another hunting hover. We didn't see her drop to the ground before she vanished hundreds of metres away.
(r+mb id@768).jpg)
Having startled the Roe Deer in the meadow, we later discovered that the camera at the Round Pond has already 'seen' the Roe Deer.
(r+mb id@768).jpg)
The male Roe Deer also visited the woodland feeding site, and provided this
clear view of the Deer's head. We notice that the antlers have had a 'point' broken off - the
short point on the left in this photo.
"You should see the other guy ..."
(r+mb id@1024).jpg)
Two days after the first appearance, probably the same male Roe Deer wanders over a diagonal (with a double back) across the plot over 40 minutes
(r+mb id@1024).jpg)
On an early morning walk after a wet night we came across this strand of slime
hanging from a tree next to a path with a pair of Leopard Slugs at the bottom
tightly entwined in a mating embrace. Over the next 20 minutes we took over 100
pics of this event, overheating the flashgun on the 'little' camera with
us.
This initial shot (poor natural light) helps provides context.
The strand plus Slugs at the bottom is about 0.5m long, and the same distance
for the slugs down to the ground.
(r+mb id@576).jpg)
A close up of the Slugs, with their genitalia entwined.
These enormous organs are extruded from the bodies and pulled
back in after mating.
Slugs are Hermaphrodites - they are both male and female and
here fertilise each other's eggs.
(r+mb id@768).jpg)
The action over 8 minutes, as they writhe around each other and then withdraw their organs. In our case one of the Slugs then simply dropped to the ground (bottom right frame is just the upper slug still on the 'rope').
(r+mb id@1024).jpg)
Passion spent, the Slug that dropped quietly crawls under the leaf litter (recently 'enhanced' by green leaves dropped in the storm) while the other climbs back up the slime rope and then up the tree trunk.
(r+mb id@768).jpg)