Archived & Upcoming Images of the Day
The 'resident' male Pheasant seems to have changed to this individual. He has hardly any of the breeding condition magnificent tail, and in this view there is no sign of a white neck-ring.
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Our 'neck-ring-less' male Pheasant does have a couple tiny patches of white
feathers in the expected place.
Our 'professional' bird guides just mention this is part of the natural variation in pheasants.
They say that all types interbreed.
Other sources (several WWW sites) say that this is a Green Pheasant (having no neck ring) and
darker plumage, that can interbreed with the normal form.
We suspect that the whole thing is now a genetic muddle welcome whatever.
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Our 'new' Pheasant head on to camera at the meadow site.
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10 minutes later we get a more conventional view at the hedge bottom. His wattles are definitely less red than we are used to seeing.
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This Magpie has just left a water bowl a few metres away, arriving at the Meadow Post to shake themselves out rather like you see dogs doing when drenched.
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It was our mistake to assume that it is Squirrels that routinely re-arrange the items at the photo sites. The 'log' has dehydrated so it isn't actually very heavy, but it must be quite an effort for a moderate sized bird.
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NOTHING HORRIBLE TO SKIP HERE - just a 'close escape'.
A Blue Tit was on the feeder as a Great Tit arrives. The Great Tit never
stopped having obviously detected the terrifying sweeping arrival of the
Sparrowhawk, shown here accurately spaced at 25fps = 40mS apart. Both Tits
were very reasonably making panicked escapes. Its said that 90% of predator
attacks fail.
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Top down we see the Sparrowhawk reaching a Talon to catch the Great tit but missing. Intervals between images are 40mS and 80mS - the missing image has the bird hidden behind the post.
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Here you see the Sparrowhawk momentum carrying her past the post as she changes direction to chase after the escaping bird at the bottom right of the feeder. Top to bottom intervals are 40mS. The entire interval for all three of these montages is less than half a second -
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More detail of the Sparrowhawk turning in the air to chase that escapee.
We expect that the Great Tit quickly found the nearby bramble smothered
Buddleia to provide safety.
We used to think that the cage around the peanut tube (primarily to deter Squirrels)
would act as some sort of protection to birds inside, but it doesn't - they just reach
in with a talon and hook out the shocked prey.
Meanwhile, for a while you can play this natural speed HD version in most browsers,
through you may want to learn how to single frame or ultra-slow motion step the player.
This video really highlights the suddenness & speed of this attack:-
http://www.moorhen.me.uk/friends/PC2_20250810_1130_001 Sparrowhawk fails to take Great Tit from caged Peanut feeder (HD 6secs).mp4
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Our rare sightings of any Blue Butterflies this year is supplemented by another or the same Holly Blue butterfly. This female opened her wings for us showing the completely different upper-wings with markings and date signifying a 2nd brood female.
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This Sloe Bug (aka Hairy Shieldbug) landed on Roy's bare arm in the conservatory, and obliged with this photo along with Maries hair.
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This juvenile Green Woodpecker spent several minutes probing the ground near the south hedge gap - a selection of pics over 7 minutes.
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2 days later this adult male Green Woodpecker stops momentarily on the Meadow Post.
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Green Woodpeckers make regular characteristic calls, but actual sightings are quite sparse. Here a juvenile male stops for a moment on the Meadow Post.
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A Fox on the prowl in the woodland. The tail looks a bit tatty, but it is not the one with seriously fur-less tail. We must have at least 3 different Foxes visiting.
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A Fox arriving at the south hedge gap pauses for a look about.
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The Scraggy-tailed Fox keeps an eye of the Rabbit hole. They can probably smell the Rabbits and hope that one might be at the entrance ready to grab.
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Rabbits do little damage here now that we know to protect any new trees,
and we see far fewer than when the surrounding land was cow pasture.
While the Fox is away the Rabbits do play
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A Red Admiral Butterfly on some ''weeds' with wings open showing the top surface of the wings.
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Probably a different Red Admiral Butterfly with wings closed showing the
similar lower surface on the wings
All insects seem to be incredibly intricate
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Jays are irregular visitors here, normally seen as brief visits to various sites.
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Atypically this Jay spent almost 10 minutes taking selfies on the Kitchen Perch. This camera beam break doesn't auto-repeat, so the bird must have been making repeated moves through the trigger beam. Maybe the bird was taking off and landing again, or just shuffling along the perch - we just don't know.
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This Red Kite spent a couple of minutes quartering the land above us.
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The Photographer is spotted - nothing important.
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This female Blackbird (foreground) is collecting ripe Blackberry fruits to feed to the youngster lurking in the background.
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This time probably a different female Blackbird was spotted through an upstairs window of the house, out on the edge of the access track. She has one or two Blackberry fruits in her beak.
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She moved down to the juvenile a few metres towards the house, and proceeded to give some of the fruit to her youngster. Mum is on the right - top to bottom in this montage.
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This Male Blackbird is 'singing in by the bath'.
A bathing bowl is hidden behind the log.
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Several delightful minutes were spent watching a group of up to about 10 Small White Butterflies in a swirling group sweeping around the meadow and up into the tree tops. As much fun as a Starling flock but much less coordinated. The number varied as different individuals left and joined the swirling cloud. Our immediate impression was of some sort of mating frenzy.
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At first site this caught the eye as if strange white flowers had popped up
by this tree root crossing a path. But it turns out to be a Fungus growing from
the soil beside the tree root.
2 days later the entire fruiting bodies were gone.
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The Iris leaves on the main pond (altogether too many of them smothering the water) appears to have a water repellent surface that has created this amazing pattern of drops.
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It's rare to see a Carrion Crow on the top of the Wooden Mains pole at the south hedge. We got quite close along the 'disused' track 20m away before they decided it was time to depart. This messy montage is our best effort at capturing the departure.
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This female Migrant Hawker Dragonfly gave generously of her time in front of the camera.
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This montage starts on the bottom right, rises up and then comes down on the left as the insect approached the camera.
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Flying straight at the camera, but never a chance of an impact, Dragonflies can
'turn on a sixpence'.
This saying seems lost in time, relating to a tiny 'silver' coin that was UK legal tender from
1551 to 1980 - that's 3 centuries! Now the equivalent of 2.5 Pence.
Initially real silver, it became Cupronickel after WW2 which is how we remember it.
They are minted in silver to this day for collectors, and for a 'sixpence in a
Christmas cake' tradition.
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A Badger obviously sniffing the air.
Were they looking for food, a potential mate, or sensing potential danger?
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Badgers do like to look down holes - even if they are (currently) too small to enter.
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A spider in the conservatory has a 7-spot Ladybird caught in their web, and secures the hapless insect before drinking it's fluids and then cutting the husk free to crop to the ground.
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Amazingly our first sighting of any 'Blue' butterfly in 2025.
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Speckled Wood Butterflies seem to be a 'reliable' butterfly here. Mostly found along the edge of the woodland.
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On their way out of the site, this Fox doesn't pause their nose-down search for some tasty morsel.
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Reynard enters the site with a determined gait. We assume that this otherwise healthy creature is the one with the fur-deprived tail ...
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... because 10 minutes later a Fox walks left to right along the inside of the dry Round Pond, eyes glowing in the IR illuminator. This Foxes tail looks thin and 'black' in IR light which we have discovered is a characteristic of the Fox with the fur deprived tail
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6 hours later another fox triggers the camera near the east hedge gap. Obviously a different individual - this Fox has a fine bushy tail.
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When a Red kite makes a couple of passes the camera has a very busy time.
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The Kite made a slow curving glide overhead, here contracted from about 3 seconds of flight.
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The photographer most definitely felt 'spotted' but 'not important'.
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Through the double glazing we watch this female Blackbird picking early-ripe Blackberries and taking them off towards a known nest site.
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Here are various stages of the female Blackbird collecting two Blackberries from a
ripening bush outside the conservatory, and flying off with them in the direction
of a nest in the hedge to the west.
She failed on her first tug, successfully tried again at a different angle, collected
another berry (missed that moment) before flying off with them both.
We have seen similar behaviour several times since.
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Probably the male of a different pair of Blackbirds, here the male is equally busy, but his offering for the chicks is worms.
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We assume that this is the Reeves' Muntjac Deer youngster with Mum
exploring the south slope of the Round Mound.
A lovely 'intimate' moment.
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Here is probably Dad by the water trough at dried out Round Pond.
He spent a few minutes around the trough but the camera didn't catch him drinking.
But the water goes down fast enough to suggest big animals do take a slurp.
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It was a nice surprise on an earlier than normal walk to get this distant view of a Chines Water Deer with her much smaller Fawn almost hidden in the long grass. She spotted us almost immediately and just vanished into the tall flowers a few metres left of this photo-crop.
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A spray of water envelops this male Blackbird at the meadow site.
A Bowl of water is sunk to ground level behind the log and lots of birds enjoy
a drink and bathe.
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A Magpie bathing party?
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Ooh - time for a lovely bath.
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A first sighting here of a Jersey Tiger Moth (Euplagia quadripunctaria).
There were two of these along the west hedge of the access track and probably both are included here.
Our 10 year old Moth ID Book shows this species as limited to the UK south west coast (we are
in the Midlands) and 'scarce'. Global warming quickly renders guide books out of date.
Our attention was first caught by one in flight flashing brilliant orange, but the black and white striped
top of the wings is pretty spectacular as well - and surprisingly difficult to find in the foliage.
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Nearly one second apart this individual fluttering against the hedge gives an impression of the orange flicker. Particularly note that the body of the insect shares the bright orange of the underwing - undoubtedly aiding the effect.
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Here you can see the orange underwing peeping through the not quite closed wings. At the centre bottom you see the edge of the underwing, but also that the same colour appears on the inside bottom edge of the upper wing - a feature we can't find on any other 'underwing' type of Moth in our guide books.
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A slightly horizontally spread montage of the perched insect taking off.
Read this right to left.
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"Stop spying on me getting out of the bath"
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This male Blackbird looks like he really enjoyed his bath.
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Looks like this Dunnock has just enjoyed a splash about in the water hidden behind.
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Two images of Gatekeeper Butterflies, the left showing the top of the wings, and the right the bottom of the wings. The forewings seem to match identically, but the rear wings are a complete mismatch. Amazing!
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Teasels are extremely attractive to insects, and the progression of flower means that they are available for weeks. This teasel with two busy bees is in the early stage of flowering. The initial single ring of flower has widened and the two rings growing up and down is just beginning to split into two.
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This Sparrowhawk make an interesting landing at the Meadow site - we don't often see Sparrowhawks at this photo site - she may be visiting the recently introduced water bowl hidden behind the log.
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This male Blackbird makes nice little sequence as he pays a few minutes visit to the Meadow Post.
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This feather came spinning slowly & drifting down in front of us. We hadn't noticed any bird flying over, and its quite big (13cm = 5 inches) so guess this is a feather from either a Red Kite or Buzzard that passed over perhaps minutes earlier. We find the markings on feathers absolutely amazing; these apparently random patterns will join up with the other feathers to make apparently unbroken pattern.
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The female Blackbird is working really hard at feeding her brood. The male is probably just as industrious, but not in front of a camera.
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"I couldn't cram any more in"
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Blackbird's Flying Delivery Service.
A play on words from 'Kiki's Flying Delivery Service' a favourite anime movie from Hayao Miyazaki
now also a live Japanese action movie - not as good as the anime, but quite fun.
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We spotted this female Blackbird with a beakful of some sort of fruit, undecided about what to do about the watching humans, but eventually decides to scuttle across the track into the hedge. Obviously a nest is in the hedge - we left her in peace.
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Teasel heads are a favourite of many butterflies. Here 3 male Brimstone Butterflies are sharing the same 'ring' of flowers on this single spiky head. Teasels have a fascinating flowering pattern, starting with a ring at the centre that splits into 2 rings each moving to the top and bottom.
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A mating pair of Gatekeeper Butterflies completely ignored us while getting on with the vital activity.
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Purple Loosestrife has appeared in the main pond, and immediately attracts insects. This Small White Butterfly fluttered from tiny flower to tiny flower up and down the stem. Here finishing with a flower at the bottom, the Butterfly moved away then back onto another flower on the stem
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Ringlet Butterflies are a nice addition to our current range of Butterflies
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Despite not seeing obvious activity at more than a single nest box, the number
of juvenile Blue Tits has 'exploded'. No fiddling - a single frame.
At other times we see a group of about 6 Great Tits.
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In 72 Hours we caught images of 13 Wood Pigeon visits to the meadow post, each time carrying a different twig - mostly of this sort of size. We chose this one to represents all 13 - sunny and free of movement blur.
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This Fox with decidedly fur-deprived tail as been around for months, but this is the clearest we have seen for ages.
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Just arriving in our patch, and already nose to the ground.
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An hour before midnight this Fox pauses on their way to the east hedge gap to look back, presumably to identify some sound in the dark of the night.
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This Fox climbing Round Mound stops to checkout something behind.
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We sometimes see bats in the CCTV system at the front of the house & access track,
but here 100m away at the Duck Pond we see two fluttering by.
The Badger is large enough to trigger the IR thermal sensor and we got lucky
with just this one frame of 3 showing them.
Normally light specks in nighttime CCTV images are moths close to the camera,
and completely 'burnt out' by being close to the IR illuminator. But these have
texture in the white and anyway 'look' like bats!
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Soon after dark these two badgers arrive by Duck Pond, and stop for a brief Romp, fight, or play - how can you tell?
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An hour before sunrise this Badger continues their 'rounds'.
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Above the trees this Red Kite glides silently by.
About 1.5 seconds of flight here, accurately montaged using the trees for reference.
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A minute later the Red Kite made a couple of lazy circles in the thermal from the field adjacent to our north boundary. Here is half a circle showing the bird at about 1 second intervals. Spacing of the images is wildly too close!
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Red Kite activity now overwhelms the occasional Buzzard sighting. Here this Kite was making a Bee-line for something well out of our view. Accurate montage over half-a second.
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