Archived & Upcoming Images of the Day
Over 4 minutes the camera catches 3 moments of this Song Thrush's visit
to the Meadow site. Left to right:-
Arrival
In the bath with just the head visible.
shaking out the feathers.
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The feather shake out isn't very clear in the montage, so here it is as large as we permit assortment photo to get so the flying water drops are clear.
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3 male Pheasant pics at the Round Mound inside 3 minutes makes an excuse for this little montage.
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The dominant male Pheasant is periodically making his characteristic calls.
His upright position takes his head way out of frame!
But its not long before the beak is back to feeding.
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A variety of 'bait' at the photo sites includes a mix of kitchen waste but always some mixed corn. This Pheasant holds a single grain in the tip of his beak.
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A couple of male Reeves' Muntjac Deer are frequenting the site.
This is the more regular, easily distinguished by a broken left antler.
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This male Reeves' Muntjac Deer has his antler about half grown inside their 'velvet' that provides blood with nutrients needed to grow the 'bone'.
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This female Kestrel makes a fly-by.
This is every frame at 8fps so 1 second of flight accurately positioned.
The separation of the two on the right looks odd, but checked to be accurate.
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One of our favourite moments from the flight.
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Another of our favourite moments from the flight.
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This Magpie, undoubtedly just flown up from the hidden bird bath at the Meadow site, spending a moment to shake out the wet feathers.
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A different Magpie, judging by the tail tip, checks out the Tree-stump, maybe hopeful
of another delivery of dead rodents.
The tail and body iridescence is amazing.
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Next day this Magpie shows us how each primary flight feather is outlined in black and greys.
This form of camouflage seems to be called Dazzle or Disruptive Colouration and works
amazingly well in the woodland canopy. Not so well on this tree-stump!
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Buzzard landings on the top of the Meadow Post are rare enough that catching this glorious landing in the sunshine is a real treat. The second image is half-a-second later.
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A glorious selfie of the dominant male Pheasant. We haven't adjusted the colours at all - he really is this luminous.
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The female Blackcap (with the female's 'brown' cap) caught before and after a bathe in the hidden water bowl.
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A disagreement about who 'owns' this site.
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A Rabbit at the Woodland site.
Note the way one ear checks forwards while the other checks backwards.
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This Grey Squirrel at the hedge bottom has a Haw berry in their mouth.
To eat it or cache it - we don't know.
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The first frost of Autumn means that it is time to add some bedding to the drey.
There is no limit to the supply - over an acre completely covered!
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Is this pic of the Grey Squirrel, or the sea of fallen leaves?
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This Grey Squirrel walks up the (quite rough surface) concrete power pole, and then walks down the same side by turning their rear feet though nearly 180 degrees to grip the surface when head down.
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This wooden power pole is a favourite hunting post for this female Kestrel.
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More detail of one image.
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This female Kestrel finds the Farm railings a great place to hunt for Rodents.
Here she is returning to the top rail after her last dive down onto the grass.
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A male Chaffinch now out of breeding colours (no blue coating on the beak) set against a luscious mix of fallen leaves.
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Last week we mentioned our fascination with how quadrupeds manage their legs. Here is a Hare with legs in an inexplicable (for us) tangle.
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A bit flared by the trail-cam we see the female Kestrel arrive on the edge of the water dish and takes a drink.
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n an Easterly wind (towards the camera) we see that this Buzzard spent at least 5 minutes on the Meadow Post. Birds generally land into the wind so we rarely see their face if it blowing towards the camera.
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2 days after the first recent Buzzard visit to the Meadow Post, presumably the same individual makes a visit of at least 5 minutes with the wind in a more favourable direction.
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An unusual moment to catch.
The Tawny Owl is making for the top of the Meadow post with a Rodent gripped in the Talons.
Unable to grip the edge of the Meadow post (right image) the Owl aborts this landing (left) for
an easier perch or maybe the ground. We don't see the Owl again that night.
There is about 500mS (half a second) between these two images
Owls traditionally carry prey in their beaks, and this problem may be the reason.
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This male Kestrel appeared to the east with the sun providing decent modelling.
The black appearance of the head is misleading - its just wing shadow on the grey head.
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These consecutive frames (top to bottom) of the 'stationary' bird show that the legs may form part of their aerodynamic control.
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As the male Kestrel turns you can now see that the top of the head is indeed light grey.
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A very messy montage to view right to left.
This female Kestrel, perched on the Farm railings, suddenly plunged to the ground.
Flying back up to the top rail she clearly has a small prey item in her beak which
she transferred to her Talons but seems to eat in one go.
So we guess she caught a Shrew (much smaller than a mouse) she could swallow in one go.
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Shrew (or whatever) now inside the bird, time to check out those pesky humans.
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OK - they seem mostly harmless.
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The female Kestrel made a couple of visits on this day, both for less than a minute.
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The dominant male Pheasant steps across the piece of Silver Birch branch but reaches back for some items of food just spotted. There is a good view of the bird's spurs on the leg behind the log.
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Aren't I magnificent - and this time you got all of my tail!
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The female Kestrel has started visiting the 'back garden' Orchard to hunt.
Its 5 years since a Kestrel became a regular visitor hunting in the Orchard.
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Another visit by the female Kestrel to hunt from a venerable apple tree.
Note the apple not yet fallen in the upper right!
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The female Kestrel makes several visits to the Meadow Post over an hour and a half.
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For the time being this regular pair of female Reeves' Muntjac Deer are here taking it in turns to drink from the water dish.
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One of the male Reeves' Muntjac Deer has broken his left Antler.
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The male Reeves' Muntjac Deer may have broken his left antler, which will be replaced when he next sheds his antlers, but he has not broken his little tusk on the same side.
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The male (red spot on back of head) Great Spotted Woodpecker hangs on to a branch of a dead elm tree in the Farm's south hedge.
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Whilst making our initial pass through half-a-weeks 4,000 pics we had just commented that the Green Woodpecker(s) seem to have departed, when this consecutive pair of pics popped up on the screen.
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A celebration of Goldfinch visits.
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The first sighting this season of a Redwing.
The site abounds with berries but none near a camera site.
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A little warmer patch surprised us by attracting this Speckled Wood Butterfly on maybe their last appearance.
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A wander around the site encouraged some attempts to capture the autumn colour in a more intimate style.
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A wander around the site encouraged some attempts to capture the autumn colour in a more intimate style.
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Our Laurel tree is now 4 Metres high and intertwined with several stems of wild Rose climbing to the top and then cascading down the outside. Previously unnoticed among some now fallen Rose leaves we discover this unusually large Robin's Pin Cushion high in the sky. We estimate it as about 5cm diameter
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Arriving at the blocked gate we found this female Kestrel perched on an 11kV cable
perhaps 50m away. We assumed that this was too close and she took off. Instead of her
usual departure to the cables far away she simply flew down the cable a few metres
before landing to continue her hunt.
Perhaps our arrival didn't trigger the move - maybe just a routine change of hunting perch.
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The female Kestrels landing a few metres along the cable.
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Rarely having the opportunity to see a Fox drinking, here we see the bushy-tailed individual lapping up the water in the manner of a dog.
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The middle image of this female Reeves' Muntjac Deer shows her substantial tongue already out in anticipation of some fluid refreshment.
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Humans tend to stay away from Wasps for fear of getting stung.
But this Magpie seems to have made a point of picking one up before
landing on the top of the Meadow Post.
1 minute later the Magpie was departing, presumably having eaten their prize.
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No more sightings of other male Pheasants for the last few days. We suspect that this resplendent beauty wins all the battles - so far.
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An unusual view of the male Pheasant Neck ring as almost a halo.
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The male Sparrowhawk makes a morning stop on the edge of the Kitchen bird table.
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Two hours after midnight this Tawny Owl make a spectacular touchdown on the Kitchen perch.
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3 Song Thrush visits on the same day.
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Two views of a Song Thrush at the Meadow site, along with the same background Pigeon - probably a juvenile Wood Pigeon.
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This female Kestrel flew past the living Room window, and landed on the ash tree some 15m away.
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The work on restoring the Meadow seems to be popular with this female Kestrel.
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The female Kestrel, startled from the railings near the blocked gate, nevertheless lands only about 50m away on the 11kV cables.
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A chance juxtaposition at the Meadow site.
On the left a Blue Tit deep in the bath water.
On the right a thoroughly drenched Great Tit exiting from their ablutions.
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This Magpie is enjoying a wash-and-brush-up at the Duck Pond water dish.
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The delightful glut of Acorns gives the Grey Squirrels more to cache than conkers.
Here different Grey Squirrel are each caching an acorns:-
On the left at the Woodland site on the way to a regular cache.
On the right at the Meadow site with 25m to the nearest Oak tree another Acorn
is being taken to we-know-not-where.
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The crop of Acorns this year has been amazing.
The Grey Squirrels are making the most of the opportunity to cache
a supply to eat in the winter.
If you see a squirrel with something held in it's mouth at this time of year
it is on the way to be stored. If a Squirrel wants to eat it it will nibble at it
where they found it whilst held hidden between their paws.
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Another Acorn being taken to the Grey Squirrel's cache.
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Near midday next day the Sparrowhawk makes a landing on the edge of the water dish by the Duck Pond.
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The Hawk stayed for about 10 minutes, first just getting a drink before flying off and returning for a bathe.
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Just getting dark, but not as dark as implied by the back background, see a 6 minute visit by the Sparrowhawk
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2 female Reeves' Muntjac Deer wander around the plot together. We suspect this is Mum looking back at her nearly grown daughter.
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This Badger sips water from the Duck Pond dish, the water catching the glow of the eyes.
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Most birds drink by dipping their beak in the water to fill it up, and their tilting their head back to pour the water down their throat. Pigeons are one the few birds that can 'suck' water up by submerging the beak (as you see here) and drawing water up like a straw.
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A Tawny Owl lands on the Meadow Post.
Right to left in half a second.
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This Tawny made at least 3 visits in one night.
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Another Owl landing on the Meadow Post in an unusually horizontal posture.
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2 visits after midnight by this Tawny Owl
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