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Birds, Insects & Bats in flight (outdoors) Page 18

Image Taken on 20 Sep 2021 at 18:05    Image of day on 04 Nov 2021

A couple of male Chaffinches, neither willing to give up the contest.
He will swerve First!|


Ref: 20211104_e63_20210920_1805_060_fb1 2 chaffinch males mid-air conflict (crop)t(r+mb id@768).jpg


Image Taken on 13 Feb 2013 at 15:17    Image of day on 28 Mar 2013

The male Chaffinches continue their battle for access to the peanut feeder even in the snow. Meanwhile the Great Tit makes a beeline for the temporarily unguarded peanut feeder!


Ref: 20130328_d3b_20130213_1517_038_fb3 2 chaffinch males sparring in flight over passing great tit while snowing (crop)(r+mb id@576).jpg


Image Taken on 20 Jun 2009 at 06:49    Image of day on 21 Jul 2009

The male chaffinches are apparently still feeling territorial.


Ref: 20090721_d36_20090620_0649_077_fb3 2 chaffinch males squabbling in flight(r+mb id@576).jpg


Image Taken on 24 May 2011 at 18:10    Image of day on 05 Jul 2011

Our first 'Chiffchaff' (confirmed by the call even if it may be a sub-species) has rather taken our fancy. Here it is a montage of it calling from it's favourite perch on the mains wire between the house and the first concrete post.


Ref: 20110705_d01_20110524_1810_090+1811_097 chiffchaff singing on overhead wire (montage)(r+mb id@768).jpg


Image Taken on 08 Nov 2013 at 07:26    Image of day on 29 Dec 2013

6 Gigantic geese made of water mist winging through the dawn sky.


Ref: 20131229_df1_20131108_0726_009 clouds shaped like skein of geese (crop)(r+mb id@768).jpg


Image Taken on 07 Feb 2013 at 15:48    Image of day on 21 Mar 2013

A flurry of subtle grey feathers as a collared dove flies over the log


Ref: 20130321_d5c_20130207_1548_029_fb2 collared dove in flight (crop)(r+mb id@768).jpg


Image Taken on 18 May 2015 at 17:47    Image of day on 19 Jul 2015

A selection of 4 images (in the proper order but not consecutive) of a Collared Dove flying by, arranged for effect.


Ref: 20150719_df3_20150518_1747_083+086+090+092 collared dove in flight (selected) 1-4 of 4 (impression montage)(r+mb id@1024).jpg


Image Taken on 16 Jun 2015 at 09:19    Image of day on 16 Aug 2015

This year this Collared Dove is making regular visits to the tree stump. These images were all taken well before midday and montaged for the pleasure of seeing the bird.


Ref: 20150816_d36_20150616_0919_049+20150618_0626_109+20150616_0921_050_fb4 collared dove landing on tree-stump (impression montage)(r+mb id@1024).jpg


Image Taken on 10 Mar 2009 at 17:32    Image of day on 30 Mar 2009

This pair of collared doves were 'playing' in the wind at sunset with the orange sunlight 'playing' over them.


Ref: 20090330_db1_20090310_1732_015 pair of collared doves in flight in low evening sunlight (web crop)(r+mb id@576).jpg


Image Taken on 14 Sep 2023 at 10:38    Image of day on 05 Nov 2023

The Comma Butterfly on the left 'won' the encounter and quickly got back to feeding. An inadvertent fly didn't disturb the Butterfly.


Ref: 20231105_df3_20230914_1038_079 comma butterfly feeding on blackberry fruit with incidental insect flyby(r+mb id@768).jpg


Image Taken on 04 Apr 2009 at 13:41    Image of day on 25 Apr 2009

Took us a while to identify this as a 'bee-fly' - then discovered we first identified one last year on 15 April 2008, so this sighting is over a week earlier. It is hovering in front of the blackthorn flower - you can see the wings as smudges left and right of the insect. Here is the 15 Apr 2008 Bee-fly on Leaf litter (click to view).


Ref: 20090425_db1_20090404_1341_101 common bee-fly (bombylius major) hovering in front of blackthorn flower (web crop)(r+mb id@576).jpg


Image Taken on 20 Aug 2020 at 13:11    Image of day on 27 Sep 2020

One of the fun things about Darter Dragonflies is that they often return to the perch from which they have just flown, given a chance to photograph a landing as here.
NOT an accurate montage but a decent 'impression'.


Ref: 20200927_d73_20200820_1311_155+156+158 common darter dragonfly female landing on woodpile twig 2+3+5 of 5 (impression montage)(r+mb id@768).jpg


Image Taken on 06 Aug 2016 at 14:35    Image of day on 29 Sep 2016

A Common Darter Dragonfly was repeatedly returning to this bent over Hop Sedge providing the opportunity for an image of the landing.


Ref: 20160929_df3_20160806_1435_181+182 common darter dragonfly landing on desiccated hop sedge 1+2 of 3 (montage)(r+mb id@768).jpg


Image Taken on 01 Sep 2024 at 15:58    Image of day on 19 Oct 2024

This male Common Darter Dragonfly caught an eye perched on one of the mains cables on its final span from concrete pole to house. We don't have any reference to a similar sighting. The Dragonfly was behaving normally for a Darter - sitting quietly before leaping out to grab some, to us at the distance of perhaps 6 metres, invisible prey item, before returning to the same perch. When the perch is a stick or similar you can keep the camera firing images until the hoped for return, but hundreds of twists of copper wire look the same to both man and beast, and the Dragonfly never landed in the same place twice!


Ref: 20241019_d72_20240901_1558_089 common darter dragonfly male hunting from overhead mains cable(r+mb id@768).jpg


Image Taken on 09 Sep 2020 at 17:38    Image of day on 20 Oct 2020

A magical moment at the time, and still is in this photo, as this Common Darter Dragonfly gently lands next to his shadow.


Ref: 20201020_d73_20200909_1738_105 common darter dragonfly male landing on corrugated iron with shadow 2 of 3 (crop)(r+mb id@768).jpg


Image Taken on 18 Aug 2014 at 12:45    Image of day on 26 Oct 2014

A Common Darter Dragonfly landing on a pondweed encrusted twig. The right hand image is moved right - it was making a more vertical landing than appears here.


Ref: 20141026_df2_20140818_1245_487+489- common darter dragonfly male landing on stick 1+3 of 3 (adjusted montage)(r+mb id@768).jpg


Image Taken on 18 Sep 2009 at 14:52    Image of day on 01 Nov 2009

This a montage of 5 images showing a common darter dragonfly taking off from a branch. The spacing of the first 3 is forced horizontally because they would overlap, but the vertical rise is accurately montaged.
The transition between still and having left the branch takes 66mS (2 frames at 30fps). Hooray for a camera that can store what happened before you press the button even if the quality is not 'premium'.


Ref: 20091101_cf1_20090918_1452_885-889 common darter dragonfly male vertical takeoff @ 30fps (vertically accurate montage of 2-6 of 7)(r+mb id@576).jpg


Image Taken on 01 Feb 2011 at 14:48    Image of day on 15 Mar 2011

A flock of gulls flew over, with this one near the end coming very low and suggesting this little montage taken about 150mS apart. They should probably be further apart, but the bland blue sky provides nothing to register the frames, so we just went for artistic effect.


Ref: 20110315_df1_20110201_1448_048+049 common gull (q) in flight (arbitrary montage)(r+mb id@1024).jpg


Image Taken on 05 Jul 2017 at 11:12    Image of day on 24 Aug 2017

Convolvulus flowers brighten up the ground at this time of year.
In about 1992 we had dug out 'Round Pond' but not yet lined or filled it, and it erupted with a carpet of thousands of these flowers right down to the bottom about 2 metres deep. We conclude that the soil must be 'saturated' with long-lived seeds awaiting their chance.


Ref: 20170824_df3_20170705_1112_165 convolvulus flower with hover-fly (crop 2)(r+mb id@768).jpg


Image Taken on 02 Jul 2023 at 12:19    Image of day on 26 Aug 2023

White Convolvulus flower appear each year along one side of the east-west path across the centre of the meadow. This photo also caught a Marmalade Hover-fly making the most of the nectar.


Ref: 20230826_df3_20230702_1219_010 convolvulus white flowers (1st of 2023) with marmalade hover-fly(r+mb id@576).jpg


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