Archived & Upcoming Images of the Day
This Little Egret was flying north to south near the brook perhaps 400 metres away to the west. Photographing the flight started as soon as the bird was in focus. This is at 10fps accurately montaged.
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Suddenly the bird made a hasty braking manoeuvre and seemed to drop out of the sky.
It seems that they nearly flew into the 11kV cables - here so close that they are as accurately
focussed as the bird. The changes was so abrupt that they vanished from the viewfinder - from
level to vertical flight in 400mS (0.4 seconds).
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The camera found the Little Egret again a few seconds later.
Here they seems to be turning with legs lowered - dropping of the legs may be an aerodynamic
trick or perhaps the bird was still shaken by their possibly a near-death collision.
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A closer look at one of the moments of the Little Egret's flight.
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Most years we catch a few sightings of Blackcaps. These two views of the female montaged into a single image. We have caught sight of a male near the conservatory, but the camera didn't :-(
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Just recently we have both noticed many birds singing - usually the poor directionality of a our aged ears means that we never locate them with eyes or camera. Here the easy to spot Robin perches on a bare twig on the edge of the Meadow Path.
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Two moments of a long-tailed Tit perched high on a dead willow stem.
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This male Reeves' Muntjac Deer with broken left antler and little tusk on each side seems to have been with us for ages.
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Here is one of the females, ears illuminated from the rear.
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A visit by a male Chinese Water Deer near the east hedge gap. Note the long tusk. No other camera caught a sighting so this may have been a very brief visit in and out of the south hedge gap.
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The female Reeves' Muntjac Deer may have stopped for a drink at the trough. She departs licking her muzzle with her awesomely long tongue
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We remember frighting off a Heron at about this position near Duck Pond
and guesses that this is probably the same event.
Some of our trail cams (including this one) have a fault condition that
means they sometimes forget the 'takes three frames in a few seconds'
setting (as well as camera resolution and the time), so we don't have
any 'before and after' frames to judge.
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A pair of Wood Pigeons snuggle together drinking from the submerged
water dish. They are probably alternating drinking and keeping watch -
the bird on the right has a drop of water falling from their beak and casting
a shadow on the matt plumage.
Pigeons are one of a few bird species able to 'suck up' water (using their
tongues to suck the water up) rather than most birds who just take as much
water as will flow into the beak. It seems that all birds then tip their beaks
back to pour the water down the gullet.
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This female Reeves' Muntjac Deer stops near the East hedge gap and has a little groom.
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The frames on either side show no hint as to why this deer was fleeing past the Duck Pond.
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But next morning this Muntjac Deer startles this pair of Mallard Ducks.
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Antler tops are sticking out of the top of the 'velvet' that supplies blood to the growing 'pseudo bone' antlers. We saw one like this weeks ago so this must be another individual.
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A few years ago a Fox spent a few weeks housing her cubs down this hole,
so there must be some kind of chamber inside.
Recently Badger(s) have been intermittently enlarging the hole until this night
(after midnight 18 Apr 2026) there is a determined effort to open the hole for Badgers.
The trail cam took over 300 pics in the 2 hours of activity.
The first indication of success was seeing a badger EXITING the hole
head first - there must be room to turn around.
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Suddenly 2 Badgers are at the site - at least one entering it.
Could this be a sort of 'starter home' for a new pair?
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This female Fox, with active teats, found the excavation works and took a lot of interest as the Badgers came and went. We have no evidence for her entering the hole, but she may have.
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Next night the Badgers make several visits down the Round Mound hole - from about 150
trail-cam pics here is a handful (+ one Fox).
A change (not shown) is that long abandoned rabbit holes in the south side of the mound have
been cleaned out - we guess that the Rabbits have been somewhat 'dispossessed'.
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A 'never seen here before' pic of two male Orange-tip Butterflies
hanging torpid on adjacent Lady's Smock (Cuckoo Flower) flowers.
We have a view from the other side on request if it matters.
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A female Orange-tip Butterfly also enjoying Lady's Smock (Cuckoo Flower) flowers. Ladys Smock (Cuckoo Flower) is the dominant flower at the moment, but masses of Garlic Mustard is starting to flower - Orange-tip Butterflies need this plant to lay their eggs and feed their caterpillars before they overwinter as a Chrysalis.
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A Green veined White Butterfly feasting on a Lady's Smock (Cuckoo Flower) flower.
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We interpret this messy image as a pair of Bee-flies joined in coitus (mating).
Males are smaller than the females, so he must be on the left.
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Male Mallard Ducks are spectacular until they moult,
but this female keeps a subtle beauty all her own.
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At the moment we have a nearly contiguous presence of female Mallard Duck(s) on the main pond, sometimes accompanied by a male.
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Next afternoon we see what appears to be the same female Mallard Duck gracing the same water.
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The male Reeves' Muntjac deer with broken left antler positions himself nicely and keep still for this portrait.
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Before going head down for a drink this female Muntjac Deer sniffs the
air to check for danger.
Deer olfactory sense is said to be hundreds of times better than Humans.
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A male Mallard now sometimes accompanies the little family of Mum and Ducklings.
This is at Round Pond.
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A Raft of Ducklings on the Duck Pond - Mum hid herself in the Hop-sedge and was calling for them to come to safety.
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Is this little 'guy' lost or just feeling adventurous?
Adventurous is NOT a survival characteristic for Ducklings :-(
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Inside of 1 minute Mum suddenly appeared from inside the hedge on the south side of
what we call 'Butterfly Alley'. Several Ducklings followed her out and she marches them off
to the west - probably back to the main pond.
Including the 'stray' it seems she now has at least 8 Ducklings left - very few
Mallard Ducklings make it to adulthood.
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Active Rook nests are all currently occupied by females incubating their eggs. The males provide food for the female's 3 to 4 weeks vigil. Will she be pleased with a supply of soft vegetation to line the nest?
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The Magpies are now busy building their nests from sticks and mud. This is what is probably the same Magpie with two loads of 'building material'
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Two days later and still collecting Building supplies. In 20 minutes this Magpie made 3 collections of mud and weeds to take to the nest - wherever it may be.
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Wing downdraught raises the dust as this male Pheasant lands at the Woodland photo site.
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Its rare to see these recessively marked female Pheasants while they are nesting. Possibly this one has had her nest raided.
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A Red-legged partridge skulks around the south hedge gap.
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It seems rare to get more than a glimpse of a Wren, so this one keeping still in a hedge for more than a few seconds invited a pic.
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A Serene moment as female (left) and male Mallard Ducks glide along Round Pond together.
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AT LAST - a duck has raised a clutch of Ducklings on the main pond.
This group have spent 4 days so far on our patch - this is day 1.
There are 11 Duckling in this image - we think that is all of them.
Its a fairly typical number of hatchlings.
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A male Mallard arrives and Mum goes into defensive mode - quacking to call her rabble to order.
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After a disturbance caused by a male splashing down in the pond, an hour later the male has gone and Mum has herded her rabble into the Irises at the Main Pond.
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We normally avoid getting close to active agricultural sprayers (to avoid breathing the chemicals), but this one was downwind of a 'gale' so we continued onwards. This Chinese Water Deer seemed to be equally uncertain what to do, eventually running to and disappearing under the hedge you see behind her.
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3 days later we see maybe the same female Chinese Water Deer quietly browsing the just spouting field far to our south ...
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... but then finding the lush grass in the field boundary more to her taste.
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The first sighting this year of one of our favourite butterflies - the Orange Tip.
This one with the actual orange wing tip is the male. The female has no
orange tips, but both share the wonderful intricate green tracery on the
bottom of the wing (not visible here)
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A female Orange-tip butterfly - only the males have the orange wing tips. The lacework of green under the rear wings - always similar as far as we can tell - is common to both sexes and disguises them rather well when perched with wings closed.
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A Green-veined White Butterfly - first of this year.
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Lady's Smock (Cuckoo Flower) (Cuckoo Flower) is appearing all around the main pond.
A quiet delight - and a bonus for early butterflies.
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We really think that this Badger is working on enlarging this Rabbit hole
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One or more Badgers still seem to be enlarging the Rabbit hole in the Round Mound. This one can now just about squeeze into the entrance.
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Unexpectedly positioned almost identically an hour apart we see the male Reeves' Muntjac Deer using the water trough at Round Pond.
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Not many Fox visits at the moment, but this one very obviously came to the Duck pond water dish for a drink.
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This Rook looks like they are really enjoying their
ablutions.
Out with the nearby watering can - there is one by each trough/dish/bowl
ready for top ups!
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This year we have seen Herons at all three largest ponds!
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This Heron is hunting in the round pond. We doubt that the hunt is productive - there are no fish (that we know of) in any pond.
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Next day the Duck Pond receives the Heron's attention - no fish here but alive with invertebrates (slugs, snails, insect larvae etc.)
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Red Kites have been appearing unusually often.
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This distant (perhaps 300m away) Red Kite rises from the ground initially hidden by the lay of the land
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Next day we catch this moment as a Red Kite carries a substantial twig off to the south where evidently a pair must be building their nest.
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Red Kites have been appearing unusually often.
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This 'short' version of the Red Kite's circle start at the middle left and goes clockwise.
The bird was close and low enough to make the substantial changes in apparent size.
There are 140 images at continuous 10 fps we can make available
as a .ZIP file to download. You will need at least 4GB of hard disk
space (size an HD movie) to download and expand the files and a very
capable photo editor.
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Another visit from the male Sparrowhawk. Photographed while landing (left) 3 minutes later the bird is having a preen. The montage hides the fact that the bird was in the same place and makes the table and pole sections look much longer than reality.
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The Following 3 frames illustrate a single event.
First the automatic camera at the Kitchen Window catches this Sparrowhawk
landing on the Kitchen Perch.
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The Sparrowhawk spends about half a minute on the perch.
Cameraman to start photographing just in time ...
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... to catch this confused action as the bird lifts rom the perch before diving down to the left.
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This Badger crosses the south ditch (now dry) but stops on the far bank and looks back perhaps directly at the camera. The Red glow of the IR lamps is quite clear in the dark.
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This healthy looking Fox has gone right down to Round Pond's water level.
Probably just to have a drink that tastes better than the trough, but
possibly to swim across to the island.
We will never know which.
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Scattered around the main Pond are little clumps of Lady's Smock (Cuckoo Flower) flowers.
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The north side of our north hedge is in shade all day so the blossom is behind the other 3 quadrants. This 100m long stretch is a delightful mix of blossom and 'Spring Green'.
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Two days apart we see two Pigeon landings.
This silly Montage took our fancy.
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A rather attractive landing by this Wood Pigeon on the Tree-stump. Still without flashgun - we are leaving it like this for now.
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Through the kitchen window on a rather dull day we see this female Mallard Duck quietly standing on the edge of the main pond ...
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... while 2 days later the sunshine enhances this view of the male at the same place.
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Just getting light - and this pair of Mallard Ducks collect breakfast from deep in the water where we chuck some corn each time we pass.
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As this Badger trundles on his forage he/she is watched by a pair of Ducks on the water well away from any danger.
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An unexpectedly good image for a trail cam of this male Mallard taking off from Duck Pond.
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This time this trail-cam catches a Wood Pigeon flying from the Duck Pond.
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Trail-cams are patient - wait long enough and a bird will fly straight at you!
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The male Reeves' Muntjac Deer (with broken left Antler) walks along the edge of the south ditch. His fur is looking a bit less beautiful than usual as he sheds his winter coat.
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Arriving at the end of one of the multitudinous grass paths catches the sight of this female Reeves' Muntjac Deer. After a few seconds she suddenly realised that enemy No. 1 (any Human) was only a few metres away and leapt away with incredible acceleration that got only this one image of this departure.
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We seem to be having a Ladybird invasion!
There are hundreds in some modest bushes, all of the UK native 7-spot.
But the Bathroom is also invaded by Harlequins - several in the bath each
time and sometimes dropping into the water while in it, while the Kitchen
has to be gently swept up of 7-spots from the floor of the kitchen.
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We hadn't realised that Ladybirds eat Pollen and Nectar, as we see here. Apparently it is an essential foodstuff for them, and different species choose different species of flower.
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When we took this pic neither of us had seen the bird. While processing the image Marie spotted what she thought was a Great Tit that turned out to be an illusion, but we did find an actual blue tit at almost the centre of this crop.
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This elegant bird is probably a Willow Warbler, but we didn't hear the song to be sure.
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Back down to the ground, a glimpse of a Song Thrush at the Meadow site.
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Great Spotted Woodpeckers treat the nuts in the feeder like they do wood burrowing
grubs in trees - peck like mad until you get your prize.
That tail really is an essential 'third leg' for this birds lifestyle.
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A senior member of the 'local' Badger set.
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Badgers are formidable creatures who trundle around the sites like little tanks!
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NOT a montage. We have now moved this camera - see later 2 nights later the same trail cam catches two Badgers on the Mound together.
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This Badger entered at the East hedge gap and immediately started to scan the ground for something to eat before stopping to groom the flanks with the left rear claws.
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