Archived & Upcoming Images of the Day
On this single night (5th to 6th Feb 2024) a check of the camera watching the Meadow Post reveals an amazingly 50 frames of continuous Tawny Owl covering the whole night. Here is a little assortment - they never brought any prey back to the post.
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The three most obvious landings look so identical that we have grouped them up to see the tiny details of each landing
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In an apparently unrelated moment (we carefully checked the 50 frames and there were no pics an hour either side of this event) this Tawny Owl appears to have pounced on something at the Woodland site some 40 metres from the Meadow Post. As far as we can see the attack was unsuccessful - it is said 90% of predator attacks fail.
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The clarity of leaf detail is a little reminiscent of prints by the master of illusion M C Escher, but without the magical ambiguity.
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The clarity of leaf detail is a little reminiscent of prints by the master of illusion M C Escher, but without the magical ambiguity.
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This is a rare glimpse of a Chinese Water Deer inside our patch. Notice the apparently ruffled fur behind the head.
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We have photos of Chinese Water Deer inside our patch only twice before and in each the deer
had some damage to the fur on the top of the neck. But not as bad as we see here with a whole strip
of skin exposed as well as other damage.
From the interesting site at
https://www.wildlifeonline.me.uk/animals/article/water-deer-fur-moulting
we quote the following:-
"It is not uncommon for water deer, particularly bucks, to be missing patches of fur,
particularly on the neck, flanks and rump, as a result of combat during the rut.
In some cases, they present with large areas of fur missing, such as this buck in
Buckinghamshire" ... (with picture on the referenced site) ... Credit: Marc Baldwin.
We are in Buckinghamshire as well, and here is our injured Deer by the Round Mound
photographed by a trail cam.
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The apparently more placid Reeves' Muntjac Deer don't rut. This is a female, but the males are equipped with little Antlers and small 'Tusks' which are apparently used when fighting other males. But we have never seen any Muntjac with more than a few scratches.
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Female Kestrels are making regular visits to the Meadow Post as well as the high voltage cables and other perches where the bird sees us before we see them..
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This extended visit by a female Kestrel is entirely spent resting without particular attention to the surroundings, or, as here, having an extensive preen.
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Two and a half hours later this 4 minute visit is entirely more purposeful with intent staring down at the ground below in all directions.
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2 days later this tail-spread landing is captured on the Meadow Post
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Rooks are really magnificent birds!
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7 minutes later what we assume is their mate comes to join them on the rather cramped (for two) top of the Meadow Post.
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A serendipitous moment as this obviously paired Wood Pigeon lands to share the Kitchen Bird table and perch
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A serendipitous moment as this obviously paired Wood Pigeon lands to share the Kitchen Bird table and perch
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Catching a view of this bracket Fungus in the 'Copse' (Copse is our name for a same species group of 19 trees we used in our original planting plan) we took this photo of a single Bracket Fungus growing from one of the 'less vigorous' trees.
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Closer inspection makes 'less vigorous' seem more like 'probably dead' :-(
The tree has broken off at about 3.5 metres high, and the upper section is in 2 parts -
the upper sloping section in this pic, and a piece originally between them about 1 metre
long here propped up by us against the base of the lower trunk still in the ground, with
a 70mm hole in the side. Its turns out it is upside down in the photo :-(
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Here is the hole in the 1 metre section we find this interesting hole in the lower half. Visually aligning the broken pieces (without transporting a ladder to get to the top of the standing piece) suggests that the hole faced approximately north.
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Inside the short section we find the trunk hollowed out to right up to the bark, suggesting that, unnoticed at the time, a Woodpecker chiselled out a nest hole in this inadequately sized tree. The tree then broke at the weakened section. It would seem the events are not recent - the white coating of Fungi inside the hole is quite thick. Yes - we have searched all of the other birches but can't find any other signs of hole nesting birds using them.
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Eyes fully dilated in the small hours of the morning, one of our visiting Foxes has eyes and ears focussed on 'something'.
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A bit before midnight, the orchard trail cam catches these 3 images taken at a few second intervals. The approaching fox does not seem the least deterred by the open mouthed Fox in the foreground. Whether a Fight or affectionate encounter follows we will never know.
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Several sightings of Foxes include this moment of intense focus.
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"What's this here?"
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Just a short visit by a female Kestrel.
Read right to left.
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1 Week later this female Kestrel lands on the Meadow post, and exactly 1 minute
later launches downwards.
The camera controller takes 5 pairs of pics at exactly 1 minute intervals while the IR beam
is 'blocked' and doesn't react to departures, so we know the exact interval for this
luckily timed departure.
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A closer view of the just launched Kestrel.
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The image of the left is 15 minutes after the one on the right, but is obviously the same Tawny Owl waiting on the post with more patience than we built into the camera watching the pole. The Tawny Owl didn't seem to catch anything.
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Over about 4 night-time hours there are numerous visits by both sexes of
adult Reeves' Muntjac Deer. Just this one frame catches them together.
The male is closest to camera, with antlers and tiny tusk.
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An adult female Reeves' Muntjac Deer stops by the Woodland site. There is undoubtedly some corn left buried in the leaf litter, and the nutritional value is worth the search.
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A study of the male Deer feeding at the Meadow site.
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Several visits to the meadow post by the female Kestrel over 12 minutes.
Read right to left.
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Looks like a visit from our 'Blonde' female Kestrel.
Left to right.
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Exiting the house at the rear caught a glimpse of this female Kestrel on the
telephone pole at the front. Making progress towards the access track eventually
persuaded the Kestrel to depart.
Obviously a spread out montage, but all in about two-thirds of a second.
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Here we catch the moment as the Kestrel's left foot slipped off the post top.
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A Robin and his shadow jump down from the bare stone to more interesting things on the ground beneath.
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A lively male Blackbird takes his selfie.
The bright yellow beak matches the resident male who has not apparently
lost his territory to the influx of immigrant Blackbirds.
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A perky Great Tit pauses on the hedge bottom stone.
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There suddenly seem to be Blue Tits and Great Tits all over the site, feasting on the emerging buds. This one was perhaps 6 metres up a willow tree.
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The male Reeves' Muntjac Fawn has finally stood up to search for more food.
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The Deer selects bits of vegetation that take his fancy.
We have many times observed that these Deer select just small amounts of a wide range
of different 'weeds' - they don't just eat grass.
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After 15 minutes we quietly left the now not-so-little fellow to his own devices.
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2 and a half hours later he arrives at the automatic camera at the woodland site to continue his endless quest for food in the freezing weather.
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We came across this Fawn sitting in the sunshine at the woodland/meadow edge. A close study of several pics suggests that the Antler bases are just starting to bulge, indicating this is a male. Maintaining a closest approach of about 20 metres away we managed a nearly complete circle of this lovely creature, at first just sitting in the sunshine, then sampling the weeds he could reach with moving, and finally getting up to feed on some thicker vegetation.
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The Deer Fawn having a nibble of whatever foliage he can reach.
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So relaxed he nodded off for a minute or two.
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"I'm going to have to get up if I want more food."
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As this extremely cold day wears on, this Squirrel decides to lay in some extra bedding. Same as for us then!
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The night shift searches the still frozen pond.
The montage shows two separate visits hours apart, but looks natural.
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Next day the frost is gone and this Green Woodpecker is again able to probe open ground.
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The Robin 'owner' of this part of our patch stops by the Tree-stump as the sun starts to set.
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The sun-warmed hedge has already thawed as this little bundle of Joy glows in the sunshine.
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This Robin is doing the endless rounds in the quest for food - their primary defence against the cold.
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Owl sightings other than at selected posts and perches are unusual, but
we see a few each year. Here this Tawny Owl lands in the currently dry ditch
but doesn't stay.
The static bird (left) hasn't actually moved from their landing position on the right.
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Near the end of the night this Tawny Owl stops by.
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One of the Tawny owls spends 18 minutes hunting from the Meadow Post.
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Part way through the morning where the temperature reached -8.8C the previous
night and is still -0.2C at 10:40 (figures captured in retrospect from our Ecowitt records).
Looking south over the neighbouring fields the frost is so heavy you might think that this
was light snow if we couldn't assure you that this is 'just' frost.
That little speck on the post is definitely a Buzzard.
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A dominant male Pheasant inspects the frozen Duck Pond as the rising sun illuminated the woodland edge to the north.
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A Jackdaw lands on the frost covered Meadow Post top.
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A Rook and a Jackdaw (with a Wood Pigeon bringing up the rear) share the recently delivery of grain and scraps.
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Just after dark we catch this Fox intensely watching this bit of ground. And not just watching - look at the two ears swivelled and forwards to catch the slightest sound from where the eyes are focussed.
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We are not seeing mice or voles at the meadow site, but that isn't where the Owls attention is focussed - it is peering into the rough grass around the post. The facial disc of Owls is part of their hearing system - face your area of interest and the sound is aligned.
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This Tawny Owl is very active on the top of the Meadow Post. Undoubtedly they are very keen to catch a nice warm rodent to fight off the cold.
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Only a few minutes before sunset, The Robin makes a final check that food hasn't miraculously appeared on the tree stump.
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The last week of freeze-up has seen a huge increase in the number of Blackbirds seen over the site.
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Here a female Blackbird was searching inside this Hawthorn tree, undoubtedly looking for berries. In this pic we can see two Haws top and bottom left.
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One of the female Kestrels makes a landing on the post.
These 2 pics are only half a second apart - its remarkable how the slight change
of position relative to the sun completely changes the bird appearance.
We guess that the sunlight would be 'dappled' if seen against a solid background.
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A shaft of morning sunlight enriches the colours of one of our female Kestrels.
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The trail-cam moved to the back of Duck Pond to watch the pollarded Willow top has come good by revealing a visit by a Little Owl (actual species name) shortly after dark. We hadn't seen one since July 2021. The Squirrel is shown at exactly the same crop to provide an indication of size.
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Two days later we see another Owl visiting the same Pollarded Willow, this time
a Tawny Owl seen at the Meadow Post a few minutes earlier.
We have to assume that its is the same individual.
Scale from the 2 very different cameras is here not controlled.
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"What - no juicy mouse for lunch?"
Peanuts will have to do.
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This Magpie spends about 7 minutes on and around the Meadow Post.
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The Saga of the female Kestrel Part 2 of 2
The whole sequence lasts about 20 minutes.
From feeding on the soils heap she flies the 100 metres along our East hedge to the NE
corner of our hedge surround.
We decided that we had disturbed her 'enough' and started walking back when
a neighbour flew over her as he departed in his Helicopter, and the bird decides
to fly back in our direction and land on the top of our electricity power pole.
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She stayed there for another 6 minutes before flying along the hedge onto a branch of this Ash tree growing out of the south hedge.
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She then flies around the SE corner of our patch and lands in one of the conifers inside our patch, viewed from the outside.
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Conifer branches tends to be rather flexible and the slightest wind will cause to sway up, down around. Like Kestrels in flight keeping the head still in order to detect the movement of prey, here you see how she changes her whole body stance to maintain her eye position on the bobbing branch.
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The Saga of the female Kestrel Part 1 of 2
The whole sequence lasts about 20 minutes.
The female Kestrel was first
spotted from inside our patch on the top of the disused and leaning
telephone pole with back to camera busily hunting the 'land' outside our patch.
7 minutes later we arrived at the other side of the pole where she was still
hunting but now properly lit by the hazy sunshine.
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After a couple of minutes she suddenly dives down to the top of one of the monstrous piles of mud and clay on the farm side of the hedge. She is now hidden from us by the pile nearest us from some 30m along the track.
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Jogging down the track we find her on the linear heap along the ditch (about 1.5 metres high) with
some sort of Rodent in her left claw which she is busy eating. In the middle pic she has her
beak filled with the meat.
She was almost stationary on the mud - the pics are spread for clarity only.
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Once consumed she decides to take off.
Not quite the vertical launch it looks like here, but a pretty good rise out of nothing.
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The Laurel bush starts shaking about, and it turns out to be a Squirrel hanging down from a Laural branch with their rear legs to leave their front paws free to pick and consume Rose hips that grow freely from the rose much entwining the Laurel.
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Some 40m away this Squirrel 'freezes on their way down the Oak tree by the Meadow. You can see the rear claws swivelled round to enable them to hang comfortably, and even 'walk down' the tree-bark.
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"Anything juicy or crunchy worth a swim to the Island?"
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The Fox just walks through the muddy flooded ditch.
Maybe the fox is so wet they can't get any wetter!
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Here a Fox shows us why they visit our patch on most nights - here leaving at the east hedge gap, complete with a good sized Rabbit clamped in their jaws.
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This Reeves' Muntjac Mum tends to her fawn near the Eastern hedge gap. Of the 3 Fawn + mother combinations we see, this is the most advanced pair. These Deer don't have any sort of 'Rut' or breeding season, but breed all year, you get Fawns of all ages and sizes.
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We don't remember previously seeing two Muntjac Deer at the same time in the area behind the garage. Mum is the larger Deer with the nicked right ear (our left) with the fawn behind. They quietly wandered away to the left and we thought that they had disappeared ...
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... but returning anyway 10 minutes later we find the Fawn has returned.
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