Archived & Upcoming Images of the Day
A Peacock Butterfly feeding on one of the newly opened Blackberry flowers.
The colourful top of the wing is very obvious.
The bottoms of the other pair of wings appear almost black when top lit,
but here the sun is shining through the wings creating a dark echo of the top of wing's colours.
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A male Beautiful Demoiselle Damselfly showing us his wings nicely spread. Damselflies perch with their wings aligned along their abdomens, but some occasionally flick their wings open and closed while perched.
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A female Beautiful Demoiselle Damselfly, here perched on a leaf, is distinct from the male. There are still more males than females, but in nothing like the numbers of either from the last few years.
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One of the regular Foxes looks ready to grab anything stupid enough to
stick their head out of the hole.
Unsurprisingly nothing did!
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Busy times for Foxes at the moment - either Mums with milk to make, or both parents on the endless search for something to satisfy the cubs. This passage as the day draws to an end.
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The early morning 2 days later sees a similar passage past the Round pond. Its impossible to be sure, but this is probably the same individual as photographed the previous evening.
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The male Reeves' Muntjac Deer dropped his antlers about 2 weeks ago, and is re-growing his antlers amazingly quickly.
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The male Reeves' Muntjac Deer with his pair of ever larger 'velvet' Antlers
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This male Green Woodpecker spent 9 minutes in visits to the top of the Meadow Post.
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The Reeves' Muntjac Deer Fawn is still doing well, but not now often seen with Mum.
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Here is the Reeves' Muntjac Deer Fawn in daytime colour at the Woodland site.
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Reeves' Muntjac Deer Fawn and Mum at the end of the orchard. We don't catch them both in the same photo-frame much now - this is the best of the week with both in the same pic.
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This dunnock may sometimes stop at the peanut feeder to fill his own little tummy, but knows that the chicks in the nest need the squidgy caterpillars and the like.
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This Great Spotted Woodpecker is now a regular visitor to the peanut feeder outside the study window. This is a montage 2 moments from a single visit.
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A juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker visits the Kitchen perch - our first
sighting of a juvenile this year.
The breast of this bird seems unusually Grey.
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A surprise was seeing this short-tail Field Vole inside this peanut feeder.
While we watched the vole circled around the central column at least twice while
obviously looking for the easiest nut to pull through the mesh.
4 days saw later a repeat performance (not shown), so this may be
a daily visit we only sometimes notice.
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In the gathering gloom of evening, this Fox stops for a moment, probably sniffing the air for something to fill the belly or take back to the hungry cubs.
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Here is the Reeves' Muntjac Deer Fawn after dark near the South hedge gap.
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2 very obviously different adult Badgers seen 30 minutes apart - first at the end of the Orchard and another at the east hedge gap.
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A male Pheasant often appears near the East hedge gap, but in IR monochrome he somehow loses his glory. But here we see a quiet domestic moment, for once along with one of his 'wives', pecking up breakfast together.
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We normally see a Jay once or twice each year, and more usually at the tree-stump. So 3 visits in about an hour to the Kitchen perch is a nice bonus this year. The visits are shown in left to right order, but the overlong perch is an artefact of montaging.
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A few in-flight sightings of a female Kestrel are here supplemented by a few minutes visit to the meadow post. The sun 'came out' during her visit, kyboshing any attempt at hiding the background joins, so the white bar separates the lighting change.
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The female Kestrel's landing is enough fun to show it at larger scale.
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Time for the female Kestrel wash and brush-up
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This male Reeves' Muntjac Deer has shed an Antler.
We have noticed in the past that they find the imbalance quite disturbing
and carry their head at an awkward angle
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Wildlife deaths are an ever-present reality, but only a few make a personal
impact that you remember. Here a male Reeves' Muntjac Deer is lying dead on
the verge on the opposite side of the main road to our access track entrance.
We assumed that this was our regular visiting male, but ...
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Next day we see the male Reeves' Muntjac Deer with both of his antlers shed.
His head turned so that you can see into the Pedicles (the sort of antler 'root')
of his lost antlers complete with a hole at the centre.
Subsequent sightings of the male accompanying the female persuade us
that the road kill is a male we had not seen recently.
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These small green beetles catch the eye with both their iridescent green and, for the males only, their strange bulging thighs that give them the name Thick-legged Flower Beetle. This one is on a Buttercup flower.
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On a near windless lunchtime we see this close to perfect reflection in the water of the Round pond.
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The male Great Spotted Woodpecker has become a regular visitor. The peanuts in the two main feeders are each being eaten at the rate of a third to a half feeder tube a day.
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Outside the study window the post that supports a mini-bird table and
this Peanut feeder has becomes a target for both this male Great Spotted Woodpecker
and one or more Grey Squirrels.
The post has got some life left in it for now.
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We are suckers for affectionate Pigeons.
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Morning landings into a west wind lines up this Wood Pigeon for this attractive back-lit moment.
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We don't know what attracts this male Green Woodpecker to the post top, but we are getting a few sightings each week at the moment.
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This male Green Woodpecker comes down from the Meadow post to peck over the ground at the meadow site before returning to the post, where he rubs off the sticky mud from his bill that he picked up probing the ground.
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Look at the bottom of the post that the Wood Pigeon is occupying, and you will see the male Green Woodpecker clambering up to displace the Pigeon and take possession of the post top!
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The male Beautiful Demoiselle Damselflies are this year substantially
outnumbering the females.
We don't know whether this has any significance.
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This is the only female Beautiful Demoiselle Damselfly we have seen before the weather turned cold and we stopped seeing any at all. The white spots near the wing tips only appear on the female.
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This female Common Blue Damselfly momentarily touches down on this dead blackberry stem, but immediately takes off again. Read this montage bottom upwards.
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This 1.5m tall Foxglove is growing up the metalwork of the
conservatory security gate, and is a favourite with the local bees.
This appears to be one of our regular Bumble Bees species - a Buff-tailed.
We had no idea that Bumble Bees could fold back their proboscis in this manner.
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A montage of the Bumble Bee over about a quarter of a second.
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Woodpeckers have started occasional visits to the Meadow Post. Here you see 4 separate visits. The species and sexes are listed in the filename - the noticeably Larger male Green Woodpecker being third from the left of the otherwise mixed pair of Great Spotted Woodpeckers.
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The first really clear portrait of the Reeves' Muntjac Deer Fawn. We assume that it is Mum behind. We see the tiny Hoof-prints in many suitable soft clay paths.
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The male Reeves' Muntjac Deer sees us at the other end of this path, but seems to decide that we are harmless, and quietly walks across the path that crosses this one until out of sight.
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Mum has stepped out of the south ditch. The Fawn has to put in a lot more effort!
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The Fawn and Mum appear all over the site, but seem to particularly like the south of the orchard.
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Do you ever get to enjoy the sight of pairs Butterflies spiralling upwards in mating flights? This pair of Speckled Wood butterflies spent a few minutes in a pool of sunlight entrancing each other, and us.
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The same pair as a montage of two moments.
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The beauty and elegance of Wood Pigeons really gets lost when confronted with a flock of hundreds.
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Another Wood Pigeon landing to delight the eye - this time outside the Kitchen.
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This Blackbird appears for this trail camera near the east hedge gap
a few times a week. The surprise here is that the eyes are so bright
in the IR light. Many night creatures have a Tapetum - a reflective layer
behind the retina to give the retina 'two goes' at picking up the photons,
but our research doesn't indicate that any birds have one except Owls.
If not the Blackbird, why the glow?
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Another instance of the glowing Blackbird eye reflecting the IR illuminator.
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This adult Fox on the hunt by Round Pond definitely has Tapetum to aid his nighttime hunts.
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A juvenile Fox learning the territory.
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This Rook made a momentary stop on the tree top before continuing his journey.
Most of the Rook nests around are now deserted as the new youngsters and parent
spend most of their time feeding in the surrounding farm fields recently scarified
and then harrowed ready for their delayed crop, exposing lots of yummy worms
and other invertebrates.
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There is nowhere for the Hares to hide in the farm fields now. Better hide in that strange patch with mostly un-cut grass.
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This Chinese Water Deer is feeding on the long grass in the South West corner of our patch, far from their more regular sightings. We again suspect this change in behaviour is a result of losing the cover of weed covered farmland.
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A female Orange-tip Butterfly.
No orange tip like the male, but like the male has that beautiful green and white patterning
on the underwing. This one is feeding on Herb Robert.
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A different female Orange-tip Butterfly, this one feeding on a Red Campion Flower.
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We last saw this Micro-moth 5 years ago - and we still don't know what it is.
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One of the regular Beetle visitors.
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In our early years here we just don't remember seeing any of these Shieldbugs. This brown Dock Bug has become quite a regular.
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Roses of this colour seem to be widely promoted as a hedging plant. This Micro-moth flew into the flower between the petals, and didn't flee on gently pulling back the obscuring petal.
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Tawny Owls are back after many weeks of absence - and making several visits over two days.
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Another Visit 25 minutes later commences with a spectacular landing
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This is a middle and final pic of another Owl visit. Between the previous pic (not shown) and the image with the Rodent the Owl must have flown down to pick up the Rodent, and returned to the post top to eat it, all with the one minute interval between exposures.
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Delight of the week is this the appearance of a really young Fawn. We first sighted Mum (upper left picture apparently leaving the Round pond island. Dad is on the bank at the left. A female Mallard Duck on the water is just visible approximately between them. Lower right taken 24 minutes later, some 20m away near the east boundary, shows Mum followed by our new arrival.
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Detail of the Reeves' Muntjac Fawn
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The above sightings were mid-morning. 12 hours later we catch this messy glimpse of the Fawn following Mum through the south hedge gap at the end of the orchard.
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The day before the Fawn sighting a trail cam catches this pair of Reeves' Muntjac Deer, female to the left with the male sniffing her nether regions to determine whether she is 'ready' yet. This male's behaviour suggests that she has already birthed her Fawn - the females become receptive again only a day or two after birth.
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This is the male Reeves' Muntjac Deer (only the males have antlers) with the normally closed scent gland (looking like a human mouth quietly closed, but vertical and curved) but here wide open to expose the scent gland on this side. Can they control this separately on either side?
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We think this tongue is cleaning the male Reeves' Muntjac Deer's scent gland just below his eye.
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Our first sighting this year of a Beautiful Demoiselle Damselfly, this one a male.
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Next day we see another male Beautiful Demoiselle Damselfly nicely shadowed on the leaf he is standing on.
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We planted a row of 5 Lodgepole Pine trees to make a windbreak at the east end of the meadow. Each tree produces both sexes of flowers, but on separate branches. On the left the male Catkins that release great clouds of yellow pollen at the slightest touch. On the right the female flowers quietly wait for (they hope) another tree's pollen before becoming fir cones.
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The Hedges are erupting with Hawthorn Flowers (aka May Flowers)
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We don't exactly have a 'riot' of Burnet Roses, but various places on our patch are saturated with their perfume.
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Our pair of Mallard Duck are not happy to see us arrive close to the edge of the main pond, and quietly walk away into the cover of the Iris 'forest' using the roots of the Iris yet to grow, and matted weeds.
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A sort of 'Frankenduck' - we have several pics of these two making their way around our patch over a few days.
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This is our favourite 'togetherness' pic.
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