Archived & Upcoming Images of the Day
The Meadow area is quietly aflutter with a few species of butterfly.
Here is a Gatekeeper Butterfly.
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This is a Comma Butterfly - the white 'comma' appears on the other side of the wings. Our early years here only saw this butterfly in the autumn, feeding on rotting windfall apples. Delightfully we now spot that unique Scalloped wing edge at various times throughout the warmer months.
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This Comma Butterfly is obviously a new arrival, but has already had a brush with something sharp all along the edge of the left forewing. Too many and too small to be bird pecks, we guess a brush against a blackberry or rose stem.
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Oops - dropped something!
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3 days later (the same day as first seeing the pic of the above moment), we find what we assume is the same feather caught in the grass at the bottom of the post.
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This year blackberry stems completely obstruct paths in only a few days. While cutting back the northen overgrowth this little site of interest was noticed for a return visit - a hatched Pigeon egg amid several flattened Lords-and-ladies plants, allowing imagination to fill in the events.
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A second emergence of Red Campion flowers is underway.
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We have commented about Bindweed bleaching very quickly, and here we see the effect of a whole day of sunshine on this single flower along the side of the Farm Road. The camera perspectives are different, but it was the only flower along this excessively mown section of road.
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A Rook makes an early morning landing on the Meadow Post silhouetted by dazzling sunlit Teasels.
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A well developed Teasel flower head (the rings now almost reached the 'poles') attracts one of the many pristine Peacock Butterflies currently decorating the patch.
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This is a 'younger' Teasel Flower head with the flowers still all clustered around the 'equator'. This single ring will split into two new rings which will work their way toward the top & bottom of the head.
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Teasels seem to attract any insect that uses flowers for 'fuel'. Here we see a Bee working their way around the back of the spiky head to emerge into view covered in Pollen - just what the Teasel needs to pass on their Genes.
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We have mentioned hearing the presence of juvenile Green Woodpeckers, and at last we get to see one on the Meadow Post.
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12 days later this juvenile Green Woodpecker - we have no idea how many there are - makes another short visit to the top of the Meadow Post.
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A female Common Blue Damselfly (blue form) perched on a grass blade.
In flight we find that these insects are almost like 'flying ghosts' with transparent
wings and body easily lost against foliage.
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The first appearance of a Hawker Dragonfly this year.
Our initial ID 'by eye' was for a Brown Hawker Dragonfly, and a few hours
later our waiting about was rewarded by this individual flying along
the top edge of the house walls. This is an accurate montage at about 8 fps.
The insert is a magnified version of the top right image where the diagnostic
brown wings are clearly visible.
Don't worry about the wonky looking roof - the camera tilting while panning and
other effects made exact alignment difficult.
 flying along roof edge + insert (approx montage @8fps)(r+mb id@1024).jpg)
Our first ever sighting (or rather ID of) a Two-banded Wasp Hover-fly (one of several variations of common names).
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This afternoon Fox arrival through the south hedge gap stops for a look around before deciding where to go now.
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The disproportionately large ears, and devoid of the nicks in the edges that a few months of hunting create, tells us that this is a young Fox out on his own.
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White Campion first appearance this year.
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Deep in the gloom of the woodland a chance beam of sunlight for a minute
or two illuminates the berries of one of hundreds of Lord-and-Ladies plants
scattered all over the site.
The sun moves its diameter in the sky every two minutes (like the moon) -
so the shaft of light correspondingly 'moves on'.
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A more representative attempt to bring you the feel of the floating shine of the Fox-and-Cubs at the front of the house.
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Even in ID books pictures of flowers clumps rarely capture the feel of seeing a clump with the eyes - eyes pick up the detail and general form at the same time much better than a photograph. So here is the 'detailed look' of this delightful wild plant.
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This Lime tree is about 30 years old, and in the last few years has started
to produce flowers and 'bracts' - the light coloured shapes that give the
tree such an unusual appearance. Even 20m downwind you can detect the
wonderful perfume of this tree, which becomes almost overpowering right
underneath - a sweet but not sickly aroma.
The English language seems devoid of descriptions for aromas.
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This Magpie brought this bedraggled item to the Meadow Post top and spent 20 minutes gradually pulling it apart and eating it. The colour and size suggest that it was a shrew - it is furry so it's a Rodent of some sort at least. Magpies are not equipped with the curved tearing beak of a Raptor and obviously take quite a while to 'carve up' their prize.
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Self Heal is appearing in and around our patch. It is amazing how many common names of plants follow supposed (or not) medicinal properties.
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Seeing all these wonderful creatures should not let us forget that the basis
of all life (apart from Deep sea vents) is plants.
Here is a little celebration of recently flowering 'weeds' This Field
Scabious is hosting a male Thick-legged Flower Beetle at the lower left.
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A rather tatty with insect damage, but still rather gorgeous, Meadow Cranesbill flower.
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A Knapweed flower.
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A few more butterflies are showing themselves. This one is called a Gatekeeper from their habit (in the past) of flying about in the weeds near gateposts.
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A Gatekeeper Butterfly looks almost surreal on this pristine white Bindweed flower.
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Out in the meadow, and along the hedges outside our patch, Ragwort is flowering in great burning clumps of gold. This gatekeeper Butterfly stops off for a feed to fuel that endless fluttering search for more food and a mate. The yellow flowers are a bit washed out here to make the detail of the darker butterfly clearly visible.
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An immaculate (brand new!) Comma Butterfly.
We might be able to persuade you that the insect is perched on a piece
of shiny marble, but the reality is a pile of polythene covered bricks :-(
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The underwing of a Red Admiral Butterfly.
We have heard reports that they are exceptionally abundant this year,
and we are certainly seeing more than usual.
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The first appearance of the beautiful Ringlet Butterfly this year.
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A Fragmented view of our Reeves' Muntjac Deer 'family' just as it is getting dark.
Left to right we see:-
Mother and Fawn
Mother and Father (assumed)
Fawn and Father (assumed)
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The Antlers 'in velvet' must be almost full grown at this length, and already having the characteristic curve near the tip.
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Our first ever sighting of a Leaf-cutter Bee. here enjoying the broken Silver Birch tree trunk piece we told you about months ago. We left it horizontal on an unused outside bench near the east wall of the house. First sighting was of as green piece of leaf (about 1 by 2cms) disappearing into a hole at the top LEFT of this pic. Grabbing a camera saw 2 more trips with similar sized pieces of leaf, but into the hole on the RIGHT. The bottom pic is of a pile of sawdust UNDER the tree-trunk that we assume must be related, but we saw no activity there.
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This heavily pregnant Grey Squirrel needs all the food that she can find. She spent several minutes munching through potato peelings in the compost maker. The compost maker is at 30 degrees from the vertical and too heavy to push back before it is ready to be emptied.
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2 days later what could be the same Grey squirrel.
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On one of our daily walks we found this 8cm long piece of bark lying on the field margin completely 'out of context' - i.e. we have no idea where it came from. First the whole piece resting on the bar of one of some farm railings.
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A detail from near the centre of the above show a plethora of different lichens in just a couple of centimetres.
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One of our peanut feeders is now regularly visited in the daytime by one, occasionally two,
short-tailed field voles. They probably also visit in the safety of darkness.
Here at 9 a.m. there are only 2 peanuts left and no apparent way to get at them.
When refilling the feeder shortly thereafter there was just one peanut left.
We could stop the voles by moving the position of the further from the post that they
climb up to reach the feeder, but they are hungry, and are not invading the house.
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Here we see again our newly discovered Scarlet Tiger Moth, this time perched on a hedge.
The coloured spots have all but bleached to white on the top of the wings though
the basic black seems to be a more persistent dye.
The Moth flew across the path to land on a stem on the other side, providing an
unexpected view of the underside - still quite brightly coloured.
As usual we blame the sun bleaching the side most often exposed to the UV.
IGNORE all this 'don't use Sunscreen' trash on social media - excess UV is dangerous.
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Next day we find what is probably the same Moth utterly soaked by the rain
lying on the grass path with wings tangled up.
We untangled the wings and left the poor little creature to dry on the sunlit hedge.
Gone next day - whether a rescue or a snack for a bird we don't know.
The orange you don't normally see is a quite common characteristic for moths -
the orange top of the rear wings is normally covered and in flight the orange effect
is a quite startling change from normal appearance. ID books often manage to show
pics of insects called by their underwing colour without a hint of the colour in
the photo or drawing!
The underwing colour shows well in photos taken in-flight - this pic shows the
same moth with both wings closed and in flight at
Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing in flight & on Hawthorn twig (montage)
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Before the rains an elegant wood Pigeon looks back at the camera.
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At the start of the rain that beautiful matt grey breast looks very tatty ...
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... but another day of rain this bird really looks quite awful.
We do hope it is not as uncomfortable as it looks.
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A Fox on the prowl past Duck Pond.
The tail looks rather odd - fluffing out at the back half.
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A drenched Fox walks up to the Duck Pond.
The tail of this one looks normal unlike the night-time IR image - maybe some
lighting effect or a different Fox.
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Pigeons love post tops of all types.
This Wood Pigeon lands on the Meadow Post.
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Pigeons love post tops of all types.
The arriving Wood Pigeon (right pair) makes a clumsy landing on the perched birds right wing.
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Pigeons love post tops of all types.
Many years ago we had to pollard this Cherry tree at the edge of the access track.
Birds now use it as a look-out post and here we see a Wood Pigeon perched on it
watching us approach with a 'jaundiced' eye before basically falling off the top
to land on the concrete track, possibly associating seeing us with corn grain
magically appearing on the concrete!
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The camera watching the South hedge gap caught these 3 different species entering
over two nights - 3 actual dates but as always confused by before and after
midnight.
The symmetry appealed to us.
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Outside the study window this 'miniature' conifer was shaking like mad for no visible reason. Grabbing a camera caught this Grey Squirrel leap out of the conifer just managing to catch the edge of the woodwork.
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This is the life!
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No Red Kites over the last few days, but several sightings of Buzzards climbing in the thermal created by the variation on the land around us. Here a buzzard making a single circle in an unusually tight circle, though nowhere near as small a circle as this Montage implies.
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A more detailed pic of the buzzard just before the top of the montage.
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By early afternoon the uneven heating of the morning sunshine gives way to a more even heating that is not as affective at creating good up-drafts. A bit of wing flapping is now required to make progress.
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Its nearly 3 a.m. as the Wily Fox scours the ground for food for their or their offspring's next meal.
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A scruffy and wet Fox walks into the site at 'tea-time'. For us this animal somehow exudes a sense of experienced menace.
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Fox-and-Cubs flowers - at twice life size on our PC screen!
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This beautiful little flower grows from a crack in the concrete track.
We think that it is Perennial Flax
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Another crack loving plant is what we think is a variety of
Hawkbit.
Our ID book says it takes an expert to tell the Hawkbit Species apart, so
we will be pleased if just 'Hawkbit' is accurate.
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Across the main road against the farm fence and Pig-net grows this glorious patch of Meadow Cranes-bill.
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One of what will become a plethora of Great Willow Herb flowers.
Our early wildlife watching was dominated Rosebay Willow Bay plants that like
to grow on ashy soil - it is known in and after WW2 to colonise bomb sites.
We vaguely assumed that it would appear here, but even ash improved clay soil
will not grow the seeds. Instead we see lots of this Great Willow Herb
occupying the similar niche.
Give nature somewhere suitable to live, and it will often find it's own way
there.
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One and a half hours apart sees these two landings of this (presumably the same) female Sparrowhawk on the Kitchen perch.
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This Tawny Owl makes a couple of landings 30 minutes apart, but apparently wasn't impressed by the number of mice and voles at our 'supermarket'.
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The first sighting this year of a Ringlet Butterfly. This spot pattern on the lower surface of the wings is very characteristic.
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One of our reliable butterflies - a Meadow Brown.
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Another Meadow Brown Butterfly with wings closed and the rear wings covering the tell-tale spot on the forewing.
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A Green veined White butterfly showing that the dark green markings appear only on the lower surface of the wings.
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EGG THIEF!
Magpies don't carry their own eggs about, and this one looks like a Pigeon's egg.
We don't remember ever having seen this behaviour before, let alone catching it 'on camera'.
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A few scattered corn grains seems to be worth the search for this Magpie.
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