Archived & Upcoming Images of the Day
Nest building twig collection carries on apace.
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This rook has a short but quite thick piece of twig in their beak as they maneuver through the Black Poplar branches on the way to their nest. The Rook was picking up speed through the sequence, so the first 3 pics are alternate frames while the rest are at about 7fps.
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No sunshine to create thermals, this Red Kite is using those huge wings to power his way overhead.
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A somewhat 'spread' montage of the Reeves' Muntjac Deer Fawn learning to forage - in the middle of the day.
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The Reeves' Muntjac Fawn on the concrete access track with Mum.
We mostly only see the two separately now, but we are sure that the
fawn still wants that lovely mother's milk!
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The Fawn daintily passing across the Meadow site.
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Most sightings of the Reeves' Muntjac Deer Fawn are now 'sans Mum'.
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A rare visitor is this Stock Dove, captured by grabbing the nearest camera as the bird spend just a minute of two on this minimalist bird table
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This Wood Pigeon is watching the photographer watching them.
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What?
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At the Rooks nest most amenable to photographs, we catch the pair
what is called Courtship feeding as one returned with food for the sitting partner.
Its not courtship now - its more functional & ought to have its own name.
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Could be many things going on between these two Rooks, but couldn't not share this moment
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The second Butterfly species to see this year (after the Brimstone) has been several Comma Butterflies. Here the top view ...
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... and here the same individual showing the completely different bottom of the wings.
The glancing light for this image emphasizes that the veins and the comma
have an 'embossed' appearance. The scalloped wing edges are quite wonderful!
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Mum is probably following along, but the Fawn is first to the hedge bottom site.
The pattern of the lighter spots is interesting - a line of them down each side of
the spine, but the rest seems to be fairly random.
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Next night at about the same time we see another Fawn 'selfie'.
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Youngsters are full of energy - must be all that nourishing milk! Here is our little bundle of fun bounding through the meadow site.
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Reeves' Muntjac Deer Mum (above) Fawn on the Round Mound.
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Mum is still making milk for her sprog, and from her point of view will be unaccountably more hungry than usual. These small Deer eat a wide variety of different wild plants (weeds!) along with some grass.
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The growing Fawn 'leads the way' through the hedge into our patch. Guardian and Milk-bar' Mum quietly follows,
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Carrion crows are always about, but rarely present themselves for a photo.
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Magpie - with an air of determination
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As darkness arrives, so does the Fox.
What's for breakfast, supper, or whatever you might call meal times for night hunters.
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A Fox very much in stealthy approach. Accurately positioned montage of overlaying images.
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Probably a pair of Rooks at the Meadow site.
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Probably a pair of Rooks at the Meadow site.
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There are about 15 Rook nests in our patch and in the Black Poplars along
the access track. They need an endless supply of lining for the nest.
These girls are so fussy! Actually they share the sitting duties rather nicely.
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A pair of Rooks in the most photo-accessible nest.
On the right we see just the tail of the Rook incubating the eggs.
On the left the head and beak of his/her mate on 'guard' duty.
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Cherry Blossom looks lovely against a deep blue sky.
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This Cherry tree - really too big for this close to the house - almost sparkles with white blossom
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A detail of Cherry Blossom - rather nearer the ground!
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The Badgers season is now in full swing - several individuals are 'seen' on almost every night.
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A couple of hours after midnight two badgers trundle over the mound in the search for anything remotely edible. This IS a montage just to get decent images of both in one image.
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It seems that one of our Foxes has a serious patch of Mange on their left flank. Not a photo effect - we have see it the same on another camera.
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This Fox looks down this large hole but doesn't enter.
Clambering up the steep slope of the mound shows us that this huge
hole narrows down to 'Rabbit sized'. A hole on the opposite side of the
mound is large enough for a Fox, and we have moved the camera
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During the periods that a Tawny Owl is a rare sighting, Barn Owl visits are even more welcome - even if they will land back to camera - its the east winds to blame!
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This Barn Owl spends at least 5 minutes on the Meadow Post, avidly hunting the untidy meadow below.
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2 hours after the Barn Owl visit to the meadow post this Tawny Owl arrives at the Kitchen Perch.
The bird didn't visit the Meadow post on the same night.
It's likely that Owls visit our patch on many nights but only sometimes visit the photo-site perches.
Unpredictability is one of the 'tools' of the predator's 'trade'.
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Next day this Tawny Owl finally does appear at the Meadow post, but a strictly back--to-camera affair. We blame an east wind again for requiring a landing back to camera.
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These two pics of a Rook landing on Meadow post are about half a second apart.
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Permission to land.
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The male Reeves' Muntjac Deer has sustained an injury at the top of his left leg. Its not obvious here, but the base of the injury obviously drew blood. He seems to be getting about OK without limping, and only once licked his wound during his passage as he forages around the back of the main pond.
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The injured male Reeves' Muntjac Deer is feeding normally and will most likely complete recover.
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An hour after dark we see the Reeves' Muntjac Deer Fawn frolicking at the Woodland site.
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More detail of the Fawn.
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At 2:30 a.m. the trail-cam catches the Reeves' Muntjac Deer Fawn having a drink at Mum's milk bar. Half an hour later another cam catches them making for the east hedge gap to explore some aspects of the 'Farm'. We 'see' one or other of these on most nights in our little haven.
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What a place to 'choose' - the crack between the garage foundations and
the once gravelled area outside the garage.
These white Dog Violets gleam in the sunshine.
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At the sunny corner of the garage is our most vigorous clump of Primroses. It flowered very early, and has carried on.
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On the west bank of Duck Pond we are still enjoying these colourful Crocuses.
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On the west bank of Duck Pond we are still enjoying these colourful Crocuses.
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This is the life - high up where it is safe in some sunny warmth.
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Looks like this Grey Squirrel has retrieved a conker from his cache to take somewhere 'safe' to eat.
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Our arrival startled this pair of Mallard Ducks who took off so suddenly all the photographer got was the splash. Read this middle -> bottom -> Top
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A female Blackbird at the Meadow site - beak caked in mud from her endless probings of the sticky mud.
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A female Reeves' Muntjac Deer walks up to the edge of the Duck pond.
Snowdrops started flowering early and seem to have continued longer than
usual - probably on account of the lack of insects in the cold.
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Mum and Fawn Reeves' Muntjac Deer at the Duck pond at about 3 a.m.
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Through the study window we watch this female Reeves' Muntjac Deer eating the weeds. Bon appetit.
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Through the study window we watch this female Reeves' Muntjac Deer eating the weeds. Bon appetit.
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This Rook lands on the tree-stump - corn may not fill the birds 'tummy' but just about every bird crams down as much of this wonder-food as they can
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There are about 15 Rook nests now along our access track and the tallest trees in our own patch. Here are a pair sharing a little 'quality time' together.
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Holding a stick longer than you are while in flight must be tricky - the grip at the beak can't be very secure and the stick is being buffeted by the wind on this not very aerodynamic shape.
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This Red Kite strayed too close for comfort to the Rook nests to our west.
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Huge amount of Rook activity as they are all stuck in the nests that we always think are unnecessarily close together. We assume that the male is above the nest feeding the female incubating eggs we have no hope of seeing. Their beaks are overlapping in the gap between the black feathers.
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Oh dear - we both agree that Rooks are beautiful birds.
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The Reeves' Muntjac Deer Fawn takes a selfie.
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A quarter-of-an-hour later the whole Reeves' Muntjac Deer 'family' is one photo near the East hedge gap.
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The female Reeves' Muntjac Deer has presumably 'parked' her Fawn somewhere 'safe' but isn't too keen on the Humans walking up the track towards her, and vanishes into the tatty hedge on the left.
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An hour before first light we see this magnificent male Reeves' Muntjac Deer at the hedge bottom.
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At the tip of this Conifer this Rook leaves no one in doubt about who he thinks is boss.
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The upper bird of this pair of Rooks takes off and flies away while their mate watches.
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Collecting nesting material is one of the dominant activities at this time of year.
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Rook nests are appearing afresh every day, so we see collection of both constructional twigs and softer nest lining.
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Here we catch this Rook with loaded beak of similar material.
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A Rook stops for a moment about a metre from his nest, complete with some more constructional material.
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At the rightmost of the pair of Rook nests we catch one of the family returning with another twig. Their mate sits unperturbed at bottom right.
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A juvenile Fox out-stares the camera's dark-red IR illuminator.
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The current whole view of the camera at the Round Mound.
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The trail-cam sees the Fox staring across at the Pond's Island. The Pond has been used as a safe place for the Deer to park her Fawn, and it's possible that Ducks are nesting on the island. `
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A group of 12 Corvids (Rooks plus a few Jackdaws), here spooked by something, suddenly turn into a cloud of flapping black wings.
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Next morning we see just Mum ...
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... and as darkness descends we see the back-to-pristine Fawn at the Woodland site. 2 minutes later (right image) Mum is in the picture behind, and the Fawn is leaping with all four hooves off the ground for no reason we can ascertain.
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Another 10 minutes on catches the pair near the East hedge gap - perhaps about to be introduced to the outside of our patch,
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