Archived & Upcoming Images of the Day
This Chaffinch male is very much 'in eclipse' - feathers a little less vivid than when ready for breeding, and the beak has yet to acquire the blue coating.
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Early afternoon sees the male Pheasant glowing as usual as he picks up food items buried in the ground litter.
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Through the Kitchen window on a dull morning this male Pheasant brightens the day.
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This female Kestrel has taken to regularly perching on this branch overhanging the Meadow to hunt for the masses of wild Rodents that live there.
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None of this years Kestrels are very tolerant of us.
This one landed on the top of a pole housing two CCTV cameras 'watching'
parts of the farm road, but didn't stay long.
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This Tawny Owl is showing a good sense of photographic composition as they make a stop by the Kitchen 20 minutes after midnight ...
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... before flying on to the Meadow Post 5 minutes later for a more extended visit.
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2 Hours until dawn - still time to catch a last meal.
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As this Reeves' Muntjac Deer reached for a drink the eyes reflect in the edge of the water in the dish.
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This Reeves Muntjac Deer leapt from a hidden spot in the main pond.
The photographer grabbed just a couple of frames at wide-angle before the
Deer vanished in the undergrowth.
This image somehow expresses the manner in which we normally eyeball Deer.
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What this Fox is carrying seems to be a bit of a mystery.
The item doesn't seem to have been left at the site, so we don't get another chance.
We have another image of the Fox leaving, but the front of the head is out of frame:-(
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The purple-grey berries are Sloes - Blackthorn fruit. This Grey Squirrel is going to make the most of this temporary largess.
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An elegantly poised Grey Squirrel at the hedge bottom.
If you watch UK TV nature programs you can't help but notice an obsession with Red
Squirrels over Greys. Life is as sweet whatever your fur colour!
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Not as elegant, but more functional, this Grey Squirrel is rummaging along the front of the main pond for food hidden in the debris.
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Outside the Kitchen windows this Grey Squirrel is chewing their way through a piece of Teasel head, presumably to eat the nutritious seeds.
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In a rare patch of clear sunlight this female Kestrel dives down towards the meadow ...
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... but soon arrives at a disused telephone pole for a thorough preen.
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We see a Sparrowhawk flash by a window a few times a day, but here the female stops on the Meadow Post for a couple of minutes.
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There is one young buzzard frequenting the area, and we suspect that this is the very same bird making a brief stop on the Meadow Post.
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Grey Squirrels continue to gorge on Rose Hips (here) and Haws
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This Grey Squirrel has just left the main pond island to nibble corn that has been thrown onto the ice.
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This Grey Squirrel has a piece of spiky Teasel head to take away and extract the nutritious seeds from.
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This Grey Squirrel enjoys a mid-morning snack.
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We don't remember previously seeing a Rabbit with back arched to a concave position. The legs seem to be stationary so we guess the Rabbit is having a stretch.
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Being without hands seems to us a major inconvenience.
But if your rear legs reach to the front - that's good enough for a groom.
'Anything interesting is always half out of frame'.
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Grey Squirrels seem to be mostly known as 'flea ridden', but its not for any lack of effort at personal hygiene.
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The number of overnight Tawny Owl visits has soared into double figures over 4 nights.
We have picked the best 6 landings for this montage.
Note the mix of 'Grey' and 'Brown' plumage of (at least) 2 individuals.
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This looks like two short visits by the same Tawny Own about half-an-hour apart.
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This looks like two short visits by the same Tawny Own about half-an-hour apart.
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This Grey Squirrel is doing all they can to keep the Drey snug.
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A cuddly looking Grey Squirrel - ready to bite your finger if you could 'pet' them.
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At the meadow site we see an atypically placid Grey Squirrel allowing this Robin to get MUCH too close for the bird's safety.
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These two adult Robins on the Kitchen bird table are not fighting - therefore a mated pair ready for Spring!
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An exactly one minute stay for this Owl, catching the moment of departure.
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An almost accurate montage of a 1 minute visit by this 'Grey' Tawny Owl who dives down after something they have spotted.
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Even as this Tawny Owl lands, the bird is staring backwards, probably for something at the Meadow site a few metres away.
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This Tawny Owl makes a slightly skewed landing on the Meadow Post.
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Probably the same Robin visits the Tree-stump 3 times in just 30 minutes.
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The Chaffinch (right) is starting to leap into the air to defend his bit of frosty ground from the landing Dunnock.
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Most visitors follow the 'lets just eat' behaviour as the cold weather really 'bites'.
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This female Kestrel is on the hunt just across the main road.
She was stationary in the air and then suddenly dropped perhaps half a metre
and continued to hover before suddenly diving down out of sight behind the hedges.
This is an impression extracted from overlapping frames.
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Touchdown imminent
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The setting sun provides splashes of orange over this Magpie and the Post top.
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Grey Squirrels are making the most of the Rose Hips growing through the Laurel to the East of the main pond, but here seems to have found a Haw berry (Hawthorn fruit).
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Watching Grey Squirrels clambering about in the tangle of Laurel & Rose stems is a delight we only seem to be able to partially capture in photos.
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Its seems to be mostly Grey Squirrels that are gradually stripping the Hawthorn and Rose bushes of their fruits.
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Here we see a Grey Squirrel tugging at a Haw berry.
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This female Kestrel lands on the Meadow Post.
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Unusually, we here see the male Kestrel hovering over the fields.
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Meanwhile the female attempts a landing in the top of one of this farm's Lombardy Poplar, but the tree is swaying so much the landing fails and the bird flies on.
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Detail of the failed Kestrel landing from a frame skipped in the above montage.
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Red Kites make occasional overflights. This is the second of 2 Kites flying the same path through the sky over the house.
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The same event as an accurate montage.
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Night temperatures have been well below zero (centigrade) for a number of nights. This Tawny Owl fluffs up their feathers to trap insulating air.
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An hour to sunrise catches a 2 minute visit by this Tawny Owl in one of the 'classic' poses.
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This healthy Fox seems to have spotted something to eat at the Woodland site. Although most of the leaf canopy has gone, even the bare branches provide enough cover from the sky to shelter the ground from frost
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A female Reeves' Muntjac Deer is sometimes caught out hiding behind the garage next to the access track. She took immediate fright as we passed, but quickly calmed down - perhaps we are considered 'mostly harmless'.
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While picking the best of a few images for above, and making it look respectable, we saw this mirror effect on her shiny wet nose catching the hedge, trees and sky behind the photographer.
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A female Reeves' Muntjac Deer checking out the woodland site.
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A bushy tailed Fox passes the water trough as they hunt around midnight.
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The Fox stares at the island of the duck pond. The Fox could reach the pond but would end up with paws caked in mud, so only for some sure-to-catch prey.
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This Fox takes a peer down what is currently a large Rabbit hole, but there are no Rabbits stupid enough to stick up their heads at the moment.
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Two views of a Rook in the Black Poplar tree nearest the house
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A bit dwarfed by the 11kV structure, this Jackdaw watches the world go by.
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The smooth steel top of the decades old heating oil tank doesn't suggest itself as a comfortable perch for a Magpie, but its not unusual to spot one there. This one launched down while the camera was focussed on him.
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The female Kestrel has been out and about.
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The female Kestrel makes a short visit to the Meadow Post
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The female Kestrel stops on the Meadow post for less than a minute.
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Sparrowhawk(s) makes regular passes across the living room window, undoubtedly visiting the peanut feeders in the hope of catching a Tit, but this male stops on a horizontal branch on the 'back' side of the main Pond.
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Walking back home we find this Grey Squirrel busy picking up corn left at the start of the walk.
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This Grey Squirrel's tail is a bit scrawny by some standards.
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At the left is the box protecting the camera that 'watches' the hedge bottom. Without any help from us, the whole area is thickly carpeted with pine needles, and many bits of shredded fir cones that squirrels have ripped to bits to get at the seeds.
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One of the many Grey Squirrels looking nonchalant on the Kitchen bird table.
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After a few weeks absence this male Green Woodpecker visits the Meadow
post top with his beak caked in mud.
Most of their feeding consists of probing the ground to find invertebrates.
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This male Green woodpecker departs at speed.
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This Pied Wagtail is the first sighting of any Wagtail for months.
But still not in our patch, but on the disused concrete farm track to our south.
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A four minute visit by the Tawny Owl catching the moment of departure with eyes 'glued' to the grass near the bottom the post.
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Getting ready to launch on some unfortunate creature on the grass below.
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A visit by the 'brown' Tawny Owl lasting at least 5 minutes.
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The 'Grey' Tawny Owl makes a brief stop on the Meadow Post.
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This immaculate Great Tit stopped on a stem outside the window.
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A pristine Robin at the hedge bottom.
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The Robin frequenting the Kitchen bird feeder regularly chases away any other small bird that dares to invade his space. Here a Great Tit gets the territorial focus.
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Two days after the First sighting of a Grey Squirrels consuming Rose Hips, another sunny morning lit up 2 Squirrels at the same time. One was consistently hidden by intervening foliage, while this other individual made several picks of the Hips and chewed them to almost nothing. Each Hip takes a minute or two to consume.
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Christmas day lunch for this Grey Squirrel who is chewing a Rose Hip while it is still attached to the bush.
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Here is another Squirrel, this one in a tangle of Laurel leaves, is enjoying some catkins from an entwined Hazel bush.
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Walking along the Farm Road disturbed this male Chinese Water Deer who bounded away across the field until out of sight.
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This Buzzard flew by.
Only during building the flight montage was the Fieldmouse (Wood Mouse) in the Talons discovered.
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This Rook made a 3 minute stay of the Meadow Post in some fitful sunshine. The two frames on the left are half-a-second apart.
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These two birds (Grey Dunnock and Red-breasted Robin) really don't like each other!
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