Image-of-the-Day by Subject

Image-of-the-Day by Subject

Birds, Insects & Bats in flight (outdoors) Page 3

Image Taken on 14 May 2016 at 21:44 Image of day on 20 Jun 2016

A Barn owl landing with a lovely view of the top of the open wings as well as enough of the face to be satisfying. The Owl stayed for less than 90 seconds

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Image Taken on 08 Feb 2015 at 06:56 Image of day on 24 Mar 2015

A landing of the Barn Owl from the rear gives us a good view of the beautiful wing feathers.

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Image Taken on 10 Dec 2017 at 17:04 Image of day on 13 Jan 2018

Just after dark this Barn Owl took just this one pic of itself landing on the snowy post-top, already mostly cleared of snow by a succession of Corvids looking for food.

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Image Taken on 12 Dec 2019 at 06:12 Image of day on 12 Jan 2020

Two Barn Owl landings a couple of hours apart. This is the Owl with no leg ring.

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Image Taken on 09 Feb 2015 at 05:35 Image of day on 24 Mar 2015

This image of the Barn Owl looks like the bird had just landed and triggered the camera as it folded the wings over the centre of the pole where the sense beam passes.

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Image Taken on 15 Sep 2018 at 07:09 Image of day on 05 Nov 2018

A closer look at another frame shows the Barnacle Goose below one of the Canada Geese. This is our first sighting of a Barnacle Goose here.

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Image Taken on 03 Aug 2018 at 04:35 Image of day on 24 Sep 2018

Near the end of the night a Bat breaks the sense beam just as a Plume Moth (species unknown) flies away. Did the Bat miss his prey?

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Image Taken on 22 May 2020 at 15:07 Image of day on 23 Jun 2020

A female Beautiful Demoiselle Damselfly makes final approach to land on this fresh leaf. Beautiful and Banded Demoiselle Damselflies are the largest UK species at about 48mm long, while more often seen Damselflies like the Common Blue are about 35mm long and appear much more delicate
These creatures are Midge hunters & have no interest in vegetation apart from somewhere to perch.

Ref: 20200623_d73_20200522_1507_080 beautiful demoiselle damselfly female approaching landing on leaf(r+mb id@768).jpg

Image Taken on 09 Jun 2019 at 17:45 Image of day on 24 Jul 2019

A few female Beautiful Demoiselle Damselflies appeared over the 'Duck-shaped' pond, perching on the Hop-sedge and then dashing off after prey (too small for us to see). This female flew into the frame from the right, looped around and landed into the breeze at a crease in the leaf which she had left a second or two before. All this in about 2/3 of a second.
The sequence is middle right, left along the top, middle left, bottom on leaf. The Montage is fairly accurate but slightly adjusted to avoid overlaps.
We can supply the camera originals if you should want them. Both of our 'favourite pic of the week'.

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Image Taken on 21 Jun 2018 at 15:56 Image of day on 02 Aug 2018

A female Beautiful Demoiselle Damselfly (judging from the brown wings not the very similar female Banded) flicking her wings momentarily so you can see them spread out.

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Image Taken on 20 May 2023 at 12:45 Image of day on 11 Jul 2023

Our now (and hopefully continuing) annual appearance of Beautiful Demoiselle Damselflies (the common name of the species) is underway. Their usual appearance on the sunny side of the inner hedge near the South east corner is this year limited to just a couple of insects, but they are also appearing at various sunny patches on warm days.

Ref: 20230711_df3_20230520_1245_060+1246_064 beautiful demoiselle damselfly female perched on leaf flutter down to lower leaf (montage)(r+mb id@576).jpg

Image Taken on 18 May 2022 at 12:45 Image of day on 27 Jun 2022

Here we catch a male Beautiful Demoiselle Damselfly momentarily fluttering his four wings as they sometimes do when perched.

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Image Taken on 08 Jun 2024 at 16:29 Image of day on 09 Jul 2024

A male Beautiful Demoiselle Damselfly flicking his wings. Some do this and some don't - we haven't worked out any pattern. Demoiselles are, at their own scale, voracious hunters.

Ref: 20240709_r70_20240608_1629_217+1630_239 beautiful demoiselle damselfly male fluttering wings 1+2 of 2 (montage)(r+mb id@768).jpg

Image Taken on 04 Jun 2015 at 13:41 Image of day on 10 Aug 2015

This immature (teneral) male Beautiful Demoiselle was flitting about in the hedges. The left and centre images were two perching places on the edge of the same Hazel leaf. The right was a flyby just over the same leaf (note that the legs are folded which takes a few wing-beats to accomplish).

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Image Taken on 22 May 2023 at 15:50 Image of day on 11 Jul 2023

Perched Demoiselle Damselflies normally perch with all four wings aligned to produce a rather dark effect. This female Beautiful was repeatedly flicking her wings providing an opportunity to appreciate the subtle colour of mixed overlaps.

Ref: 20230711_df3_20230522_1550_013 beautiful demoiselle damselfly occasionally fluttering wings(r+mb id@576).jpg

Image Taken on 29 Apr 2023 at 11:06 Image of day on 20 Jun 2023

A Bee-fly in flight.

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Image Taken on 14 Apr 2020 at 16:23 Image of day on 02 May 2020

A Bee-fly hovers in the sunshine
Completely Harmless! - that long probe is NOT a stinger!

Ref: 20200502_df3_20200414_1623_068 bee-fly hovering(r+mb id@768).jpg

Image Taken on 19 Apr 2018 at 10:44 Image of day on 29 May 2018

Early Spring brings Bee-flies out to hover over anything, photographers included. They are not bees, but true flies that mimic bees. The long proboscis is not a sting, and the insect in completely harmless to humans.

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Image Taken on 19 Apr 2018 at 17:45 Image of day on 29 May 2018

The range of wing movement of the Bee-fly seems to be very small - this montage includes the full range of up and down movement.

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Image Taken on 15 Apr 2015 at 15:01 Image of day on 02 Jun 2015

A Bee-fly with characteristic long straight Proboscis hovering perhaps 2.5 metres up over the rough meadow grass. The brown pattern on the wings almost looks 'painted' on with brush streaks, but has not been 'fiddled' with.
Manual exposure 1/4000Sec F7 170mm (not allowing for 1.4x teleconverter) 2500 ISO

Ref: 20150602_df3_20150415_1501_331 bee-fly hovering 3 of 3 (crop)(r+mb id@576).jpg

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