Archived & Upcoming Images of the Day
The male Green Woodpecker spends a few minutes clinging to the top edge of the Meadow Post.
(r+mb id@768).jpg)
Green Woodpeckers are back in evidence.
They mainly hunt the ground for ants - and anything else they can find.
.jpg)
A couple of Red-legged Partridges about to leave through the south hedge gap.
.jpg)
Self-set between concrete slabs we get to see Aquilegia flowers each year
at the south wall of the house.
The black background looks like a studio shot, but its a sunlit flower
against a shady corner.
(r+mb id@768).jpg)
A mid morning view looking south across our woodland from near the Round Mound. A Tranquil moment.
(r+mb id@768).jpg)
A small ditch runs along the fenced arable field across the main road to our West. It gets mostly missed by the Farm's 'beautification' mower so we get to see strips of native flowers along metres of the little ditch.
.jpg)
A territorial bust-up between adult Robin and Chaffinch at the hedge bottom
(r+mb id@768).jpg)
This Heron Majestically wings their way to our east. Accurately spaced (using the trees for reference) at 0.1 second (=100mS or 10fps) intervals from originals at 20fps)
(r+mb id@1024).jpg)
One of the Carrion Crows with feathers nicely modelled in the lowering sun.
.jpg)
Who looks their best in the middle of a bathe?
Soon this female Blackbird will have regained her composure.
.jpg)
At the hedge bottom this male Blackbird appears to be singing while leaving a neat shadow on the ground.
.jpg){kind=spacer}
A favourite Butterfly is the Orange-tip - the vivid white and orange vision in flight that becomes a subtle green lacework when the wings are closed.
.jpg)
Small white butterflies are still on the wing on warmer days, changing their nectar sources as the Spring sequence of flowers changes. This is a Green-veined White Butterfly sipping their fuel from a Forget-me-not.
.jpg)
An Green-veined White Butterfly poses nicely on a partly eaten leaf.
.jpg)
Green Woodpeckers tend to land on the side of posts and then climb up to the top. Here he has just arrived at the top of the Meadow Post where he broke the IR sense beam to take his portrait.
(r+mb id@576).jpg)
Here is a female Great Spotted Woodpecker doing the same trick on the side
of the telephone pole nearest the house (though she never reached the top).
We had always considered bird searching for food in this chemically treated pole
to be a waste of time, but the third pic from the left shows something in her beak.
We suppose a crack to hide in is the same in any material.
(r+mb id@768).jpg)
We sometimes show Great Spotted Woodpeckers taking peanuts and then
smashing them up in the crevice in the post.
Here we show the actual relationship between the two sites of interest.
The top left area just doesn't appear in either original image.
(r+mb id@768).jpg)
Here we see a young pheasant following 'Dad' across the Meadow site.
WWW sources and AI all agree that male Pheasant take no interest in youngsters.
Does this exception prove the rule?
(r+mb id@576).jpg)
This Tawny Owl returns to Meadow Post with Fieldmouse (Wood Mouse) in right claws.
We didn't see the bird arrive at the post shortly before, but they can hunt from numerous
places - including the top of our 'weather station' right over the Meadow site camera
where Fieldmice (Wood Mice) appeared in numbers.
Experience is that they normally eat prey at the place of capture, so it is likely that this
'lump of protein' is being collected for youngsters.
(r+mb id@1024).jpg)
The mouse is here shown as magnified extracts from the above.
We fear that the mouse is still alive - but not for long.
(r+mb id@432).jpg)
Suddenly the Fieldmice (Wood Mice) are back in numbers.
This assortment is from a single 4 hour sequence.
(r+mb id@768).jpg)
Just before midnight a squeaky assignation in the long grass at the Meadow site.
Mingling whiskers seems to be the equivalent of a good snog.
.jpg)
At sunrise we get a portrait of the visiting female Roe Deer near the East hedge gap. We are sure she must make entrance and exit elsewhere.
(r+mb id@768).jpg)
Mid afternoon sees this elegant but untidy female Roe Deer near the South Hedge gap. She can probably squeeze through this gap which doesn't have any pig-net.
(r+mb id@768).jpg)
This male Roe Deer made a midnight visit to the Round Pond water trough, about half-emptying the water.
(r+mb id@576).jpg)
This female Reeves' Muntjac Deer looks heavily pregnant.
The image on the right clearly shows her 'milk bar' ready for action.
(r+mb id@768).jpg)
Now we understand that Reeves' Muntjac Deer have scent glands hidden in their foreheads we understand that this male is scent marking the grass.
 rubbing forehead scent gland in grass(r+mb id@576).jpg)
Don't you just love the 'Spring' of these creatures! What caused this panicked leap by the female Reeves' Muntjac Deer remains a mystery.
.jpg)
On the east sunny side (shaded later in the day) of the east outer hedge a beautifully formed and wonderfully aromaed Burnet Rose.
(r+mb id@768).jpg)
One of the patches of Burnet Rose drenching the neighbourhood with its absolutely glorious aroma.
(r+mb id@768).jpg)
Dog Roses are all over the plot without much help from us. This beautiful pink quickly fades in the bleaching sunlight.
.jpg)
The dominant male Pheasant, strutting across the hedge bottom.
.jpg)
Pheasant male vs. Grey Squirrel at the hedge bottom ...
.jpg)
... with the Pheasant making a return about half-an-hour later.
.jpg)
Despite endless sightings of male Pheasants, and occasional views of females, we only have records of seeing a Pheasant youngster in 2009 and several in 2025. This is the first and only sighting this year so far.
.jpg)
Something we have never seen before - male and female orange-tip butterflies
attempting to mate. The female (left) is offering to mate with the male who is
fluttering around her. They flew off into the distance just a second or two later.
We couldn't have disturbed them from at least 20m away, and didn't go chasing.
(r+mb id@768).jpg)
This day-flying Moth landed partly hidden between the Leaves on what looks like Garlick Mustard. Our first record of this species
 (crop)(r+mb id@576).jpg)
Sightings of this female Reeves' Muntjac Deer in our patch are now so common that perhaps she is mostly 'living here'
.jpg)
This Reeves' Muntjac Deer male (with broken left antler) takes a drink from the main pond.
 at main pond to drink 2+4+8 of 8 (montage)(r+mb id@768).jpg)
This elegant female Reeves' Muntjac Deer checks out the hedge bottom. The hoof on the left rear leg is particularly well shown.
.jpg)
A particularly clear image of one of our Carrion Crows.
.jpg)
High in an at-last leafing Black Poplar trees, this Rook surveys their 'bit of the world'.
.jpg)
An almost (naturally) perfectly symmetrical imminent landing by this Carrion Crow.
.jpg)
Birds don't have expressions, but we wouldn't want to meet a human sized version of this Magpie anywhere.
.jpg)
This male Green Woodpecker stops for a drink.
.jpg)
Two days apart we see probably the same male Green Woodpecker first on the Meadow post, and then on at the Meadow site, perhaps 10 metres away. On the right he is at the sunken water bowl, and may have his head high to pour water down his throat.
(r+mb id@576).jpg)
This female Fox is 'stretching' the night at both ends to increase her food intake to feed Cubs, judging from the state of her teats.
 at duck pond(r+mb id@768).jpg)
This stationary Fox stares clinically at something ahead.
.jpg)
Time for a drink from Duck Pond - but the water is now some way down. There is always water in the out-of-frame dish, but the Fox apparently prefers the pond water.
(r+mb id@576).jpg)
The fur on the Fox looks really ropey all over and a darker brown than we are used to seeing.
(r+mb id@576).jpg)
No idea what this Grey Squirrel is leaping for.
.jpg)
This Grey Squirrel seems to have his left front paw ready to smack down on something in their gaze.
.jpg)
Grey Squirrels are rather variable in marking, but this one is an extreme
individual with no proper brown or white areas. It isn't as dark as what we
find described as "black Squirrels" but we guess this arrival is just at the
lighter end of the spectrum.
Notice that the silver birch 'log' is marginally overexposed, but the Squirrel is still dull.
 hurdles log at woodland site(r+mb id@768).jpg)
The following morning catches these IR light moments of probably the same individual.
No sightings in several days since.
(r+mb id@576).jpg)
A particularly strongly visible set of creases in the fur make this Grey Grey Squirrel look almost 'striped'.
(r+mb id@768).jpg)
Grey Squirrels don't have the specialised equipment like Crossbills for opening fir cones, but they have the teeth and claws to rip them to bits!
.jpg)
The Farm decided to dump waste clay, building rubble and some multi-tonne
lumps of concrete in a 2m high 70m long mound just outside our/their south hedge.
A bit of grass seed has made it look better, but it still completely blocks off
cutting most of our section of the hedge.
While we have reservations about this imposition, the wildlife makes the
most of it. Here our arrival concerned the female Reeves' Muntjac Deer for
a moment, before she went back to sampling the various vegetative delights.
(r+mb id@768).jpg)
The long mound outside the south hedge has (had) one redeeming feature - the
first Poppy of the year. Our various plant ID books don't help us decide which species
of Poppy this is, so we decided that just 'Poppy' would have to do.
Mown away the next day by the farm - so much for 'No Mow May'.
.jpg)
This stick in the Magpies beak is about a metre long.
We made a search of the area for the dropped stick but couldn't find
it, so maybe the bird did manage to fly off with it.
(r+mb id@768).jpg)
About 3 minutes later this Magpie on the tree-stump is marked sufficiently similarly that it could well be the same bird.
.jpg)
Five days later this Magpie is here carrying another really awkward load.
It fades away to our right but is about as long as on the left but without side branches.
There are plenty of short twigs if that would be preferable.
Animals are NOT 'all the same' - each has their own set of preferences
.jpg)
This year the Burnet Roses have exploded into their unmissable fragrant bushes. Wish we could share the wonderful aroma with you - far better than Dog Roses or cultivars.
.jpg)
(r+mb id@768).jpg)
On the same day we also see the first Dog Rose of the season - little perfume but a visual delight.
Unusually this year Burnet and Dog Rose have flowered simultaneously - usually the Dog
Rose is 1 or 2 weeks behind the Burnet.
(r+mb id@432).jpg)
A first for us - Deer fighting or sparring head-to-head with their antlers.
What looks to us like a really battle of strength between a couple of male Reeves' Muntjac Deer.
Caught on a trail cam in groups of 3 over few seconds, each group 20 second apart, so its
a little uncertain about the details. One of the combatants is the male with broken left Antler,
and the other still has Antlers in Velvet. No idea of who 'won'.
 spar-fight @ duck pond 2+4+5 of 6 (montage)(r+mb id@1024).jpg)
Near the south hedge gap the trail cam catches this muzzle licking moment by this female Reeves' Muntjac Deer.
.jpg)
Long-tailed Tits appear every day or so at the moment
(r+mb id@576).jpg)
From the same perch we record the departure at 10 fps.
(r+mb id@768).jpg)
'Blue' Butterflies (not all of them are actually blue!) have been rarities here,
but this year we have seen a few rather than the odd individual.
Here this Holly Blue Butterfly approaches an unopened privet flower but
realises there is nothing for them here yet and moves on.
Just under a second of action here.
(r+mb id@1024).jpg)
For the first time ever we see 3 Holly Blue Butterflies together in some sort of mating gathering.
NOT a montage.
You can see we kept 28 images from this little moment, but this one seemed to say it all
in a single compact frame.
(r+mb id@768).jpg)
For some reason we rarely see the Speckled Wood Butterfly's underwing.
.jpg)
Next day we find this startlingly well marked top view of this Speckled Wood Butterfly.
.jpg)
In the frenzy of local parks numbers of Mallard drakes frantically try to mate with a single female & may even drown her. But here our Mallard ducks loosely pair up and spend a lot of the day peacefully together - except when she is hiding on a nest when he will often be somewhere in the area and provide a distraction if a predator comes too close. Low morning sunshine streaks through the woodland behind.
.jpg)
Male Mallards are fast flyers - these three pics are accurately spaced at a tenth-of-a-second intervals.
(r+mb id@576).jpg)
In this closer view of the same flight we have lost the static reference for accurate spacing so just paint the images (still 10 per second) as a streak across the picture frame.
(r+mb id@768).jpg)
This male Mallard Duck is climbing from take-off from the main pond.
Photographed at 20 fps but showing alternate frames so 10 per second.
(r+mb id@768).jpg)
Horse chestnut tree were not on offer from our primary Tree supplier 'Trees Please'https://treespleaseshop.co.uk
who are still around 35 years on and seems to have lasted 140 years - an amazing record
by any modern standard. They still don't seem to offer Horse Chestnuts on their web site
But we bought some piecemeal over the next few years, and here we see one planted inside
our south hedge showing a lovely scatter of candles.
.jpg)
Perhaps 200m away to the south-west we have enjoyed this magnificent Horse Chestnut tree for every one of the 35 odd years we have been here.
.jpg)
The first Odonata of the year for us is this Large Red Damselfly on a sunny
stretch of brambles and stinging nettles.
'Large is relative to the 'Small ...'both much smaller than the still awaited Demoiselles'
(r+mb id@768).jpg)
Holly Blue Butterflies don't appear every year, and this one took a few days to get a decent photo of - they are tireless flyers
.jpg)
A little faded and worn, but this Comma Butterfly is still out and about after waking from his winter asleep, decorating the hedges with a glow of orange.
.jpg)
In rural areas most Mallard ducks launch at first sight of a human - a few are more tolerant. Here we see the launch of a female Mallard Duck from the main pond. Each image of the bird is 0.1 seconds after the previous (10fps) so the images are stretched along the horizontal.
(r+mb id@1024).jpg)
Our favourite moment from the montage.
Enjoy the exploding water effect/
(r+mb id@1024).jpg)
The midnight Fox sits on the edge of Round Pond, watching a pair of Mallard
Ducks apparently safe out on the water.
Will they be careless enough to venture closer if the Fox keeps still?
.jpg)