Archived & Upcoming Images of the Day
What looks like the same male Chaffinch visits the hedge bottom twice in a bit more than an hour. His plumage is well coloured and our eyes detect a lessening of the pink of the winter beak as blue pruinescence begins to develop. Spring is round the corner.
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This male Chaffinch's beak now has a definite blue pruinescence.
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This male Chaffinch blue beak pruinescence is now thoroughly opaque,
and he has already managed to rub some of it off along the beak edges
and the tip.
We seems to differ with LLMs (Artificial Intelligence Large Language Models) on this -
they imply that the actual beak material changes colour.
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This appears to be a male Sparrowhawk landing on the Kitchen perch.
Sparrowhawks fly around the house several times each day in the hope
of catching a bird unawares on the peanut feeders, but they rarely stop.
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A closer view of the Sparrowhawk's mad yellow eyes.
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Red Kites have been gracing the skies overhead.
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In the distance these two Red Kites where enjoying flying around with each other. Here the pair fly in parallel over a Farmhouse perhaps 300m away. The left side is clear, but the first two images of the bird on the right partially overlay.
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Just this male Green Woodpecker is appearing at the moment.
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This gouge out of the peanut feeder post started as a small crack used by Woodpeckers to grip nuts while the birds hammered them.
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What's that down there?
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Opposite the front door is this flailed hedge.
This Robin territory holder is already out and waiting for the 'corn scatterers'.
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An elegant female Reeves' Muntjac Deer entering the Hedge Bottom site.
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This Reeves' Muntjac Deer was walking up the long mound outside our south hedge,
but on spotting us decided on a quiet reversal of direction back into our patch.
The rear legs are completely crossed over as he swivels round.
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A couple of minutes later movement on the far side of the field to the south caught the eye as this female Chinese Water Deer was streaking across the field. This is only slightly (perhaps 25%) stretched at 10 fps - the best of about 80 in sequence.
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The female Chinese Water Deer finally stops at the far NW of the field (perhaps 150m from us) before quietly walking through the hedge that to a human is impenetrable.
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This adult badger appears for a portrait at the Woodland site. Its was raining and badger is soaked and the windows of the camera box was splashed with muddy water.
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10 minutes earlier what looks like same Badger appears to be sizing
up the Rabbit hole in the East of Round Mound.
The adult Badger will need a bigger hole than this - will they decide
to dig it out?
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What could interest a Reeves' Muntjac Deer down a Rabbit hole?
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This Red Kite lazily wheels overhead.
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A Tawny Owl lands on the right of the pic. and by a miracle of image editing has moved to the left side to launch a couple of minutes later.
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Flocks of birds often perch for a while in the Black Poplars near the centre of our patch.
What is unusual here is that on either side of the same tree we see a small flock of
Starlings on the left side, but a small flock of Fieldfares on the right.
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A couple of Fieldfares in a sort of mug-shot.
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Snowdrops have been particularly plentiful this year.
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The first Primroses of the year - 14 Feb 2026
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Another view of the Snowdrops reflected in the still waters.
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A Hare by the hedge on the obscured side of the fence was only picked up on the camera after dashing under the lowest rail. The Hare then stopped before suddenly running back a few metres nearer the camera and ducking under the railings at speed.
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More detail of the Hare exiting under the railings.
The broken railing is NOT a montaging fault - only a few days after the railings were
installed an agricultural vehicle misjudged his turn in the corner.
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Only a few Owl sightings this week - this appears to be the 'grey' Tawny Owl complete with bloodstain beneath their beak visible on the right-hand image.
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This Badger seemed to have stopped for a drink - probably before wading through the ditch 'to get to the other side'.
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Foxes tend to avoid getting muddy, and probably entered the site from the access track about 10m to the right, avoiding the ditch.
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Apart from one distant sighting of a couple of Mallard Ducks in flight some
months ago, the last sighting of a Mallard Duck here was in April 2025 (10 months).
We had begun to fear the worst with bird-flu, so it was a lovely surprise
to see these two in the main pond in the dawn.
Since seen in out other ponds - we are trying not to disturb them!
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This male Mallard Duck lands by the Duck Pond.
This may be one of the pair we showed earlier, or an interloper hoping
to 'steal' the female if anything 'happens' to him.
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Another sighting of the pair of Mallard ducks.
You can barely believe our relief at seeing ducks here again.
Now if only the Moorhen would make a return to the 'moorhen' web site!
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Around 1 .a.m. finds the Reeves' Muntjac Deer Fawn being licked by Mum.
Another adult watches - not sure of which gender or relationship from this photo.
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The Reeves' Muntjac Deer female waits for the male with the broken antler to catch up.
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Muntjac Reeves' Deer Fawn and Mum seen several times over an hour after dark near the east hedge gap - finally going through the gap on to the by nearly 10 p.m. mostly quiet Farm Road.
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An hour after midnight we see the Reeves' Muntjac Fawn catching up with Mum.
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One of the carrion Crows flies by
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The Rooks and (here) a Carrion Crow don't appreciate us bothering them near their potential nesting trees, and often chorus their rasping calls as a rather obvious warning to the other birds and 'GO AWAY' to us.
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This Rook is landing between another couple of Rooks perched on the 11kV cables.
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Exiting the front door startled this Reeves Muntjac Deer ...
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... who bounded off to the west.
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Never one to pass the opportunity for a feed.
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This Grey Squirrel is grooming their tail - something we see quite often, but so fleetingly, so it is difficult to catch on hand-held cameras.
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By the edge of the Duck pond this automated pic shows a Grey Squirrel foraging amongst the Snowdrop, while this pair of Carrion Crows quietly eat corn together from the pond's edge.
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At the front of the main pond this Grey Squirrel finds corn intended for the Mallard Ducks.
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Badgers are still visiting on most nights.
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This Badger walks up to the black water trough at Round Pond.
If the Badger had a drink the camera didn't catch the moment.
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12 minutes and about 20m travel later, what looks like the same Badger forages for scraps at the Woodland site.
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2 Badgers here near the east Hedge Gap a couple of hours after dark.
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Walking down the Farm Road a pale blob in the distance turned out to be Chinese Water Deer crouched down in the grass of the field margin.
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This female Reeves' Muntjac Deer looks back at the trail-cam.
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A little leg-groom for this deer. That's the rear left leg in her mouth.
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"Ah - the ditch is full."
First a short drink, then a stare over the water to estimate the distance, and
finally a leap over.
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Badgers are too heavy to delicately leap over the flooded ditch - wading through the mud is more their style!
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This Fox often passes by the Duck Pond to have a drink from the dish.
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Between the two images of the aligned Foxes in the above montage, we see a moment where the Fox shows the eyeshine reflected in the dish of water.
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This female Great Spotted Woodpecker has got the skill of extracting peanuts from the feeder off to a fine art. In the middle image you can see her tongue reaching through the inner grill to pull out a nut she has broken with the point of her bill.
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The female Great Spotted Woodpecker spends a moment on the post that supports the feeder.
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Quite a lot of pics of Owls on the Meadow Post this week, but mostly back to camera AND murky through wet windows. But the window that the Kitchen camera looks through on this day faced away from the wind and rain.
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Magpies really can look magnificent!
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A little celebration of this Robin montaged over 3 minutes at the hedge bottom
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Outside of the breeding season both sexes of Robins defend their territory
against all-comers, but to breed they have to relax their guard for a mate.
The pair of Robins that include the Meadow site as part of this years territory.
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Outside of the breeding season both sexes of Robins defend their territory
against all-comers, but to breed they have to relax their guard for a mate.
The pair of Robins that include the access track outside the house as part of this years territory.
You can see that the track (owned by the 'Farm') is somewhat short of 'pristine'.
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Outside of the breeding season both sexes of Robins defend their territory
against all-comers, but to breed they have to relax their guard for a mate.
Another 'loving couple' of Robins have breakfast together at the Woodland site.
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The sun is about setting (if you could see it through the clouds) as this female Kestrel makes a final stop on the Meadow Post.
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Few sightings of any Kestrels this week, but unbeknown to us at the time, this one stopped for less than a minute on the Meadow Post, conveniently spreading her tail to confirm the ID.
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This female Kestrel made a 4 minute stop on the Meadow Post, unfortunately facing the East wind so barely showing her face.
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A surprise for us was the appearance of this just-after-midnight Fawn and the mother Reeve's Muntjac Deer.
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The next night (same day) shortly after dark we see what is presumably the same pair walking quietly along the 'path' at the front of Round Pond.
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Reeves' Muntjac Deer mothers with young Fawns usually 'park' them somewhere safe while they feed during the day. This female Reeves' Muntjac Deer ambles past the Round Pond before stopping to eat something that she fancies.
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This female Reeves' Muntjac deer was 'eating the garden' outside the study window.
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One of the first clump of Snowdrops usually appears near the tree-stump camera. You have to get any pic as soon as you see them - Rabbits & Squirrels find them very tasty!
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Snowdrops are now thoroughly on show.
This is part of the patch that grows along the west bank of the main pond.
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Some more detail of these delightful harbingers of Spring.
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The male Grey Squirrels are thinking frantically about Spring.
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Winter still has weeks to run, so no letting up on warm bedding for the Drey.
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"Reached the top! Oh Bother - no food reward"
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Grey Squirrels can use their tails as 'built in umbrellas'.
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Fieldfares have been rare visitors here this year.
A small flock (maybe 20) flew overhead and the camera tracked this one.
This is about half-a second of flight, rather more closely spaced than reality.
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What we assume is still 'our' Redwing makes one of their infrequent visits to the Hedge Bottom. The red colour looks particularly intense - NOT a paint package artifact!
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An apparently large badger is out just after sunset.
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As daylight starts to glimmer on the horizon, this Badger is still quartering the ground for a final mouthful.
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The Badger is still out even as its gets light
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An accurate montage of this Owl making a touch down and then immediate launch.
The two images are about half-a-second apart.
The head/eyes have turned a little to our right - we guess the bird spotted something
to eat off to the right.
Owls can barely move their eyes because they are as large as feasible to capture
light in the darkness - they have to move their heads to adjust their point of view.
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One of the Tawny Owls makes a 5.30a.m. visit to the Kitchen perch.
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Tawny Owls intermittently spend hours hunting on our patch. This one spent almost 20 minutes on the Meadow Post before obviously spotting something worth diving down for ...
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... but returning a minute later without apparent success.
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Robins know that Marie's pocket is a nearly endless source of corn.
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Robins are 'bitter enemies' for most of the year, but come Spring, passion overcomes aggression. This year a pair on the access track outside the front door will come down together to eat the corn thrown down for them. Un-fudged single frame.
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One of our numerous Robins picks up a fragment of corn grain.
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A male Green Woodpecker on the Meadow Post
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Next day at about the same time we see him again in rather better light.
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This Fox, about to depart through the East hedge gap, looks back at the red glow from the Trail Cam, possibly preceded by a slight click.
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This Fox is hungry enough to be out well into the morning (09.30a.m.).
Possibly a female hungry from growing or feeding Cubs.
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Is this Fox checking out the 'Rabbit Pantry', or thinking about using it as a Den. Previously the Foxes did not apparently interfere with the neighbouring Rabbits as they raised their cubs.
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