Archived & Upcoming Images of the Day
Several Blue Tits are here feasting on Poplar Catkins ...
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... and opening buds.
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This Reeves' Muntjac Deer spent a few minutes on the main pond island, apparently unaware of the humans behind the Kitchen window.
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This is the frame about 150mS before the right hand pic in the montage where the long tongue has wrapped itself around the hoof.
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Our south ditch (belonging to the Farm) is badly flooding this year.
This Hare finds the flooded ditch a good place to get a drink ...
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... but it seems the Hare then went through the hedge. Our appearance outside the
hedge a quarter of an hour later prompted the Hare to flee.
This is just an impression, but does have the right feel.
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Our initial sighting of Brimstone Butterflies was weeks ago, and we have not noticed any since. This lighter individual is a female, here feeding on Laurel flowers and probably a different female on straggly grass (the insert)
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Good BRITISH ladybirds - 7-spots - enjoying a patch of stinging nettle.
We don't take any actions against Harlequin ladybirds - they are here to stay.
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A trail cam catches this Magpie transporting yet another stick.
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An hour later - another twig.
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A Magpie stops off on the Meadow post with yet another twig. Read this right then left about half a second apart.
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We walk past this clump of Primroses near to the side of the garage door once or twice on most days, and each time we return the smiles from this little clump.
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The partly shaded patches of our site are covered in self-set Forget-me-not clumps.
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Several areas are carpeted in the best show of Forget-me-nots we remember anywhere.
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Growing from the inner hedge at the East of our patch, this Cherry tree glows in the morning sunshine. The blossom on this tree has lasted particularly well.
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On the right we see the first glimpse of a Chinese Water Deer who didn't appreciate us spotting her, but rather than sprinting away, ran along the line of the railings and off to the north. An almost accurate montage except for the right head-only moment a few seconds earlier.
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Detail of the middle moment.
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Detail of the left moment at exactly the same scale as above - how the body flexes & stretches!
The slightly blurred streak vertically through the head a the wildly out of
focus first twig of the Lombardy Poplar that terminated the sequence.
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A Red Kite glides overhead catching the low early morning sunlight.
Thanks to those volunteers who helped this bird's return to our skies.
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In the now fenced-off field to our south we spot this Chinese Water Deer nibbling the fresh leaves on the hedge.
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After a while, and we think nothing to do with our presence, the Deer wandered off and finally walked through the 'impenetrable' hedge into the adjacent field.
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Magpie(s) have been routinely collecting blackthorn twigs from the south hedge.
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Gliding majestically overhead this Red Kite rode the wind making minor adjustments to their tail orientation. This is an accurate montage at about 8 fps lined up on the cloud edge, fortunately never quite overlapping
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Good grief - how much more vivid can a bird's markings get.
We have not 'wound up' the colours on this Great Tit - flash lit at the hedge bottom.
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As the leaves start to unfurl over the woodland area of the 2 acres, the light changes from almost as well lit as the meadow to an increasingly dark and secretive vista. This wood pigeon takes a morning selfie on the tree-stump now very loose in the ground and propped up by lumps of wood.
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This Great Spotted Woodpecker spends at least 5 minutes on the kitchen bird table peanut
feeder moving backwards and forwards between the post and the peanuts. Here is a 'simplified' sample.
Our theory - the bird has been there much longer and is so full of nuts he has to
wait for them to 'go down' before he can cram in any more!
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7 days later, now bathed in some sunshine, probably the same male Great Spotted Woodpecker continues to make the most of this 'seemingly endless' supply of rich food.
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Suddenly, and delightfully, at least two Hares have reappeared on our patch, here at the south-west and east hedge gaps within a couple of minutes of each other in the morning.
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On the evening of the next day this shaggy Hare turns by the ditch.
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Some weeks we are lucky enough to spot a Reeves' Muntjac Deer browsing on the main pond island where we can watch (and photograph) through the Kitchen window.
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Badger near the East hedge gap, lolling sideways in thoroughly relaxed mood.
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It looks like this Rook likes peanuts - there seem to be very few creatures that don't!
How does this Rook hold all those disparate seeds in their inflexible beak?
That's what tongues are for!
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Looks like 'Mr & Mrs. Rook' are out at their favourite restaurant.
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It's that time of year to see endless changes of incubation duty. For us it is mainly Rooks inside our patch that we mostly spot. These change overs are often accompanied by what look to us like little domestic 'spats' - who wants to spend hours sitting on eggs?
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Rook and Photographer in a state of mutual tolerance.
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Out first Snakes-head fritillary this year is a white one in shade for most of the day. The curving leaves are a delicate delight ...
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... but so are the delicately mottled flower petals.
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A very early clump of Cuckoo flowers in the soggy end of the Main pond.
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Eye caught by movement on the bird feeder managed to see a couple of feathers
drifting down.
That's a successful Sparrowhawk attack!
Looking for the perpetrator found the Sparrowhawk on some grass outside the
conservatory, viewed though the glass.
First a bit of context - you can see the yellow breast of either a Blue Tit
or Great Tit underneath the bird.
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The sad little creature in the talons was obviously not dead yet, and the Sparrowhawk was waiting for his talons to do their job. After about a minute the prey stopped struggling and the hawk flew off with it to we know not where.
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2 Rooks in what might be called an "ABBA' moment.
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Another take on the same photo as a tighter crop of the same original photo.
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A few views of a distant Chinese Water Deer in this still fallow field. This appears to be a female or immature male judging by the lack of Tusks and the typical damage to the fur on the back of the neck makes female more likely.
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This female Blackbird seems to have 'bagged' an earthworm. This is the only pic the automatic camera got of the events.
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All of the Mallard Ducks on the site this year are intolerant of humans, and fly away as soon as they sight us. This male flew by and the cameraman managed to keep the bird over the single focal point for about of this 1 second of flight. By good fortune the incredibly close spacing is absolutely genuine. The camera decided it needed to re-adjust focus between frames 5 and 6 causing the extra half bird length gap in this accurate montage.
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Detail of frame 4 as the male Mallard made a typically gentle quack. We describe females as having 'lungs of brass'.
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Detail from the last frame as the bird flies into the less cramped sky.
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As we go through the hedging arch from the original house garden into the 2 acre patch we bought and planted, this glorious blackthorn bush/tree currently greets us with this wall of blossom.
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This Marsh Marigold has burst into flower protected by the brambles at
the east end of the main pond.
The Deer will soon find the flowers - apparently delicious!
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If you are going to use your whole body to call out to the world you might as well choose absolutely the highest tip of the chosen tree.
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At one of the Rook nests visually accessible within our patch saw this Rook
(we assume the male) arriving at the nest with nothing in his beak.
He descends to the nest sitting female to give what we call an 'Incubation
feed' from his crop (like courtship feeding but carries on during egg laying
and incubation).
Is her final call 'MORE!' or more kindly 'THANKS!'?
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Whatever we 'do' to this image we can't make out the details. There are obviously two Rooks, one facing us and the other facing away. And they obviously not pleased to see each other!
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At last a decent pic of what seems to be the only male Pheasant currently around the site.
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A crop from the above - aren't I magnificent?
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This male Pheasant walked quietly across the adjacent fallow field and upon reaching the field margin performed his call - flap - stomp sequence, for once caught on camera.
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In the early afternoon hazy sunshine what is probably a Reeves' Muntjac Deer mother and her now well grown Fawn browsing quietly together by the filled-to-the-brim Duck Pond.
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To the west of the hedge bottom site is a (for humans) impenetrable patch of blackberry dead stems and fresh growth that a Muntjac Deer can walk through without hesitation.
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4 Hours later we see possibly the same Reeves' Muntjac Deer back in the
'secure' area behind the Garage where Mum regularly left her Fawn for the day
when the fawn was young.
Noticing the freckled ears - we suspect we might learn to identify individuals.
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Arriving at the main pond startled this pair of Mallard ducks. It appears that the female (right) took off about a second before the male. Accurately positioned birds shown in their genuine relative positions during about 1 second of the pairs flight.
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When we first saw the 3 images in this original trail cam sequence (which to be fair was quite badly underexposed) we thought 'just the male'. After correcting the brightness the female ahead of the male because just about visible despite her amazing camouflage.
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A Red Kite wheels overhead, their head and body turn taking just over 1 second.
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Another 1.5 second on the Red Kite is close to above the photographer.
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Herons have become only occasional sightings since we lost all our amphibians (whatever the cause) that they used to hunt. This is an accurate montage at about 7 frames per second accurately aligned using the blurred tree branches in the foreground.
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The middle moment stand-alone
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The tree sweeping through the frame kicked the camera off focus, and here we pick up the heron a few seconds on into the flight. Here we have no reference to accurately align then pics, so we just try to make it look attractive.
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A Great Tit with their shadow.
This year Great Tits substantially outnumber Blue Tits.
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A male Chaffinch looking so proud.
His colouration indicates 'ready to go' - bring on the girls!
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We are a still seeing just this one Redwing, usually as here at the hedge bottom.
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On several days a 'Charm' of about 15 Goldfinches decorate the young Lombardy poplar trees lining the Farm Road. As we walk along the group migrates to the next tree further along and so on. Here are three of the lovely little birds.
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A small group of Long-tailed Tits spends a couple minutes feeding on peanuts outside the study. They take it in turns waiting in the bushes a couple of metres away and visiting the feeder.
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The trusty camera focussed on the Meadow Post caught this short visit of a male Green Woodpecker.
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Another Red Kite gets the GO AWAY treatment from a local Rook.
The layout of these 4 pairs of birds probably bears no resemblance to reality -
read bottom right up and left as pairs of birds.
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But the relationship between these two is absolutely genuine. The Red Kite (left) looks back at what they will consider to be the 'annoying pest'
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"Do you like my twig?"
We might have rendered this in 'mouth unable to move' speech like dentists can follow with ease,
but the Magpie can't speak human anyway!
Then again, maybe this is the avian version of a 'Handlebar Moustache'.
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