Archived & Upcoming Images of the Day
At the corner of the farmer's crop this female Black-tailed skimmer Dragonfly teased us by landing briefly at various sites.
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At the corner of the farmer's crop this female Black-tailed skimmer Dragonfly teased us by landing briefly at various sites.
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This female Banded Demoiselle Damselfly is the first female seen here this year. Females don't have a colour band on the wing, and the wings have a rather clear green tinge, both different to the darker brown of the Beautiful Demoiselle, now apparently gone for the year.
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A female Common Blue Damselfly in the variant that actually IS blue. We see that this blue becomes richer as the insect ages.
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The disused track has some cracks which, without traffic to scatter the upwelling soil, harbour a variety of 'weeds'. This one seems to be a rather stunted Lesser Trefoil.
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The meadow is now awash with Oxeye Daisies. Here is part of one patch.
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Images of a male Roe Deer taken a few seconds apart give a good indication of the growth and form of the antlers.
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The Reeve's Muntjac Deer is much smaller than the Roe Deer, and we have at least 3 growing Fawns visiting the site, usually along with Mum as we show here. The pair are undoubtedly heading for the hole in the bottom of the East boundary hedge to continue foraging in the farmer's crop.
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A lucky moment to catch this Fox's mid-leap out of the (now completely dry) ditch lit by a mixture of natural and IR flash.
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At about the same time next evening this pristine Fox gives a baleful glare as he visits one of the 'known good places' for a feed.
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6 minutes later the camera some 30 metres away catches this Fox carrying away what seems to be a Rook. It is most likely the same Fox - the camera badly underexposed the image meaning the work-up has left the colours rather dubious.
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A Red Admiral Butterfly warms itself in the afternoon sunshine.
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A Comma butterfly warming itself in the evening sun, before it became so hot they would seek shade instead.
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A Large Skipper Butterfly having a feast on a thistle flower
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A pair of Meadow Brown Butterflies mating on a grass seed head. There are hundreds of this species about at the moment.
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There seems to be an endless supply of hungry young Magpies.
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We interpret this as two juvenile Magpies on the left, with long-suffering parent on the right bringing along another batch of food.
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A young Grey Squirrel looking so twee in the flowers that it almost hurts to know it may become a vicious little tree-Rat.
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A couple of young Grey Squirrels share the evening largess.
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12 minutes of this Green Woodpecker visiting the meadow post as it starts to rain are interrupted by a pic of the same bird on the ground at the meadow photo site about 10m away.
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A more detailed look at the ground image of the Green Woodpecker, who looks lovely in Clover and backgrounded by Oxeye Daisies, even if his feathers are bedraggled in the rain. His beak is covered in mud from probing the loose soil replenished at this site a couple of days before. The rain will bring worms and invertebrates to the surface for his probing beak and tongue to locate.
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Comma Butterflies (named for the white 'comma' underneath the wing you can't see here) overwinter as adults and then have 2 broods each year - the second brood overwintering to start the sequence again next year. This is a pristine insect from the first of this years new broods.
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Only a handful of male Banded Demoiselle Damselflies seen so far this year, and no females at all.
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When in flight these 'Drab' Common Blue Damselflies look almost like flying ghosts.
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This medium sized Reeve's Muntjac Deer seems to be 'learning the ropes' following Mum around the plot in the night.
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Although only 15 minutes later at Round Pond, this seem to be a different Fawn along
with both his parents.
Top left we think the Fawn is trying to find the 'Milk Bar' under Dad - something we have seen
before when the father's indignance made us laugh.
The family spent a couple of minutes generating impossibly twee images before Dad wandered
off and the other two followed.
Bottom right - Mum licks the Fawn rear to encourage defecation.
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Possibly the same male Roe Deer is caught in this pose around this position
once or twice each week.
The Hoof material (keratin) seems to be particularly 'dark' in Infra-red light.
We have never seen any Roe Deer Fawns, but live in hope
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We don't remember seeing a Magpie with prey in its claws before, but this one is streaked with fresh blood from some small bird (prey's claws pointing upwards).
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"Feed US!"
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"Feed ME!"
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All the juvenile begging finally gets the desired result.
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All over the site male Chaffinches continue to proclaim their territory.
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The female Chaffinch (left) lands next to the male already on the
stone.
Considering how aggressive males can be to their mates when breeding,
this seem to be a masterpiece of self control by the male!
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This year Blue Tit nesting has gone very well. Here are 8 mostly juveniles swarming over just this one peanut feeder.
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Little clumps of 'Fox and Cubs' are glowing around the south and west of the house.
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While working up the above we find this amazingly camouflaged insect we have totally failed to ID. Any suggestions?
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A new Beetle for our species list - a Spotted Longhorn Beetle, here perched on an Oxeye Daisy flower.
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Grey Squirrels can be really nasty.
We have looked at this several times now, and cringe every time :-(
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2 Grey squirrels getting VERY amorous on the top rail of this decrepit gate.
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Out trusty female Kestrel flies past with some obvious prey in her talons, but with no hope of an ID of the unfortunate creature.
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A Few hours later we found her on one of Favourite perches - a footrest on an old Telephone pole at our south boundary. We passed by as far away as we could, but she flew off anyway.
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Next morning we again find the female Kestrel perched on the telephone pole
at our south boundary. After failing to out-stare us for about a minute, she decided
to fly off and we caught this moment as she twisted away from the post to make her
launch.
This almost looks like a design for a bronze casting, with the necessary points
of contact to support the weaker element of the design.
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We see a Little Egret perhaps once a week. This one was flying about near the Brook, landed out of sight for a while before re-appearing to provide this view flying into the gusty east (from the right) wind.
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OK - its a cloud - but we both immediately thought of a Scottie Dog sitting on the horizon!
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There is a family group of Magpies - these two juveniles, along with 2 adults. These two juveniles are waiting for their next feed, both hoping to get the first feed
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Mum or Dad Magpie arrives to stuff the youngster with whatever is has found for the youngster to eat.
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"Hey - I want some of that"
The second juvenile magpie flies between parent and his sibling
in the hope of grabbing the food for themselves.
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Walking back up the access track found the local female Kestrel perched deep in an
overhanging tree to hunt. When she realised that we could not 'go away' she flew to
the top right corner of the front of the house where she perched on the end of the
gutter.
"Those humans just won't stop 'following' me - top of the concrete power pole it is!"
We managed to get indoors without disturbing her again.
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It took a while to identify this caterpillar as that of the White Satin
Moth.
We met a pair of Imago (i.e. the finished moth) 7 years ago (2013) that you
can see two-thirds of the way down page
arch 2013 sep.htm.
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A Cinnabar Moth with a contrasting Buttercup which helps to set the scale.
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A Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly warming in the sunshine on some dead grass along a crop border
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The underside of the wings of the Small Tortoiseshell Butterfly is quite different to the top of the wings, providing camouflage for the resting insect.
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Mum Chaffinch stuffs yet another a beakful of insects into the ever-open gape of her youngster.
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Mum Great Spotted Woodpecker stoking up her beak and crop with peanut fragments, moves across to her youngster perched on the support pole to cram in the nutritious slurry she has just collected, before the youngster flies off.
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A male Green Woodpecker checking over the Meadow post.
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This montage shows a couple of Oxeye Daisy flowers attracting the attention of
Thick-legged Flower Beetles.
The flower on the right is harbouring the male with the bulges on his rear legs,
while on the left the female has an ordinary pair of legs
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We don't think we have previously noticed a deformed Oxeye Daisy flower. This year we have noticed several like this with thickened stems and what looks like multiple tiny flower heads, most likely an insect Gall
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2 weeks later we spot another deformed Oxeye Daisy flower - the third spotted this year. This may be something new, or maybe we haven't noticed before.
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David and Goliath at the kitchen bird table?
On the Left is an adult female Great Spotted Woodpecker.
On the right one of dozens of Wood Pigeons.
Genuine single frame - GSWs are spunky!
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A Wood Pigeon departs the Kitchen window perch by 'falling off' and catching the fall with the wings.
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From our Great Spotted Woodpecker family, here is the male perching on the 'meadow post'.
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A juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker probably watching us watching them from a lichen covered willow branch.
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Mum, Dad and at least one juvenile Great Spotted Woodpeckers have returned after a few weeks absence. Here is a juvenile (the red top of head is clearer at the camera resolution) here 'tonguing' an old screw hole in the hunt for insects.
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The Green Woodpeckers are also back.
Here you can compare the comparatively delicate Great Spotted Woodpecker (here a female)
with the more robust male Green Woodpecker.
But the smaller GSW seems to be the generally more aggressive species.
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Here this male Green Woodpecker provides a little show of his antics. The top of this post is getting eroded and a split down the length also reaches the top. There may be useful things to peck for, though Green Woodpeckers primarily feed of ants, of which our meadow provides a good supply. You can clearly see the tail used as a 'third leg'
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This female Reeve's Muntjac Deer leaves our patch through a hole in the netting, and trots across the concrete and into the crop on the other side.
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This female Reeve's Muntjac Deer spent several minutes picking up food from the side of the mound. We only 'bait' with corn at this site, so that must be what she wants.
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After several sightings of small Badgers on Trail cams, this night saw visits to the high quality cameras at the centre of the woodland (left) and at the hedge bottom 4 hours later.
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At the corner of the Wheat crop this immature female Emperor Hawker Dragonfly was hunting over the field margin.
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From another flight sequence of a female Emperor Hawker Dragonfly that fell off the edge of frame, this image is more diagnostic for an ID.
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A male Reeve's Muntjac Deer walks past one of the trail cams. The top of the head shows 2 light patches where he has recently shed his tiny antlers.
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After 30 years of looking we finally find a discarded Reeve's Muntjac Deer Antler!
Lying in the rough grass alongside the Wheat, it looks amazingly like a lump of
broken fallen wood. It smells rather nasty, and is 11cms (4.5 inches) long.
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What is probably the only male Roe Deer visiting the site provides a
midnight portrait in the camera Infra Red light.
Compared to a Muntjac Deer the animal is much more substantial, as are
the multi-point Antlers.
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A female Beautiful Demoiselle Damselfly catching the vivid metallic glint at the tail end very well. The number of both sexes have declined steeply in the last few days from 50 or so to just an occasional sighting.
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As the Beautiful Demoiselle Damselflies decline we see the start of the Banded Demoiselle Damselflies, named after the striking wing patch on just the males.
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Another male Banded Demoiselle Damselfly. The shape of the dark band suggests that we haven't photographed the same individual twice.
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This immaculate female Black-tailed Skimmer Dragonfly spent several minutes fluttering around the 'garden' near the house.
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This immaculate female Black-tailed Skimmer Dragonfly spent several minutes fluttering around the 'garden' near the house.
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This immaculate female Black-tailed Skimmer Dragonfly spent several minutes fluttering around the 'garden' near the house.
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