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Image-of-the-Day by Subject

Image Taken on 04 Jun 2011 at 14:35    Image of day on 18 Jul 2011

Half an hour later this Hobby made a rather high flyover. At the time we could not see the dragonfly clutched in it's talons. The abdomen (tail) is sticking out below the tail and the dragonfly's wing outline can be made out below that. We were out looking for dragonflies & didn't spot one all day!


Ref: 20110718_df1_20110604_1435_057 hobby in flight with dragonfly in talons (id crop @576)(r+mb id@576).jpg

Image Taken on 27 Jul 2012 at 18:03    Image of day on 05 Sep 2012

We had problems identifying this bird of prey seeing flying over the wheat and dropping into it just as a lorry stopped and obscured the view. We didn't see it again. One of our email members suggested a juvenile Hobby & subsequent sightings of a pair of adults suggests this is right (see 4 Oct 2012). We just keep an eye open for it going after our dragonflies - a favourite prey - before it migrates south in a mid-August.


Ref: 20120905_df1_20120727_1803_017+020+028 hobby juvenile in flight (tight montage)(r+mb id@768).jpg

Image Taken on 09 Aug 2015 at 12:52    Image of day on 10 Oct 2015

A Holly Blue butterfly in a ramshackle bit of hedge. The inset shows the insect fluttering - the only time we could see the top of the wing beyond the edges. Only an occasional visitor here - once or twice some years, not at all others


Ref: 20151010_df3_20150809_1252_021+1251_012 holly blue butterfly on hawthorn leaf + insert in flight showing top of wing (montage)(r+mb id@768).jpg

Image Taken on 26 May 2019 at 10:02    Image of day on 03 Jul 2019

These Rose flowers are a rich source of Pollen. Watching this Honey Bee doing her stuff we noticed that she regularly moved a couple of centimetres from the anthers in order to pack her Pollen Baskets with her most recent collection before returning for more.


Ref: 20190703_df5_20190526_1002_044+045 honey bee hovering inside wild rose to pollen into basket 1+2 of 2 (montage)(r+mb id@768).jpg

Image Taken on 23 May 2009 at 13:36    Image of day on 12 Jun 2009

This is a House Martin in flight, the least frequent of our three flycatchers which includes Swallows and Swifts.


Ref: 20090612_db1_20090523_1336_050 house martin in flight(r+mb id@576).jpg

Image Taken on 17 Jun 2008 at 16:07    Image of day on 02 Jul 2008

This is a House Martin in flight, the least frequent of our three flycatchers which includes Swallows and Swifts.


Ref: 20080702_dc1_20080617_1607_325 house martin in flight(r+mb id@576).jpg

Image Taken on 26 Aug 2015 at 15:15    Image of day on 27 Oct 2015

Our first House Martin sighting this year. The spacing is a third of the true flight speed at about 5fps.


Ref: 20151027_df4_20150826_1515_049+051+053+054 house martin in flight 1+3+5+6 of 7 (close spaced montage)(r+mb id@768).jpg

Image Taken on 28 Aug 2010 at 17:54    Image of day on 12 Oct 2010

During a poor year for flycatchers a brief sunny period after rain brought out a few Swallows, 1 swift and this House Martin which has lifted its head to snatch the insect you can just see as an elongated smudge half a birds length ahead of it's beak.


Ref: 20101012_df1_20100828_1754_267 house martin in flight reaching up to catch just visible insect (crop)(r+mb id@576).jpg

Image Taken on 14 May 2008 at 15:28    Image of day on 26 May 2008

At last got some decent images of House Martins. We have selected one that again illustrates birds flying with their heads 'still', in this case still horizontal, with the body, wings & tail all sideways (See Yellowhammer from 22 May 2008).


Ref: 20080526_dc1_20080514_1528_077 house martin in flight with head horizontal but body sideways(r+mb id@576).jpg

Image Taken on 28 Aug 2010 at 17:54    Image of day on 12 Oct 2010

Another view of a House Martin banking really hard in flight.


Ref: 20101012_df1_20100828_1754_272 house martin in flight with wings past vertical(r+mb id@576).jpg

Image Taken on 05 Jun 2021 at 08:14    Image of day on 07 Jul 2021

This pair of Hover-flies were making so much noise about it that we had to investigate the frantic buzzing and found these two on a bramble growing out of a miniature conifer. These taken over 8 minutes. At frame 5 he fell off - but she let him regain his classic position. We left them to it and they were gone half and hour later.


Ref: 20210707_df3_20210605_0814_003-0822_076 hover-flies (merodon equestris) mating on blackberry leaf 1-6 of 6 (montage over 8 mins)(r+mb id@1024).jpg

Image Taken on 25 Jun 2012 at 16:00    Image of day on 06 Aug 2012

A buzzing in the grass led us to this little encounter between what we thought was two rather slim bumble-bees. But one of our weekly assortment readers quickly told us that these are Hover-flies Volucella bombylans which mimic and parasitise bumble-bees. The yellow specks are pollen grains.


Ref: 20120806_df1_20120625_1600_148 hover-flies volucella bombylans (bumble-bee mimic & parasite) mating (crop)(r+mb id@768).jpg

Image Taken on 15 May 2020 at 13:00    Image of day on 13 Jun 2020

Quite a large Hover-fly this, feeding on Garlic Mustard flowers.


Ref: 20200613_df3_20200515_1300_057+055 hover-fly (leucozoma lucorum) feeding on garlic mustard (montage)(r+mb id@768).jpg

Image Taken on 28 May 2022 at 09:11    Image of day on 06 Jul 2022

The species of this Hover-fly is uncertain.
References images with similar markings all have much more dominant black.
Pleased to meet you even if we don't know what you are!


Ref: 20220706_df3_20220528_0911_159 hover-fly (maybe helophilus pendulus) (crop)(r+mb id@768).jpg

Image Taken on 26 Apr 2020 at 17:52    Image of day on 21 May 2020

This Hover-fly was hovering about a metre away, holding position really accurately, providing the chance of this in-flight portrait.


Ref: 20200521_df3_20200426_1752_264 hover-fly hovering(r+mb id@576).jpg

Image Taken on 08 Jul 2007 at 11:21    Image of day on 24 Jul 2007

The wet weather has made some of the vegetable beds unworkable and they have become wild flower meadows. This one is covered in thistles on which this hover-fly was resting.


Ref: 20070724_d10_20070708_1121_062 hover-fly on thistle flower(r+mb id@576).jpg

Image Taken on 21 May 2019 at 10:15    Image of day on 25 Jun 2019

Another new Hover-fly for us, perched on a leaf. A hover-fly specialist has corrected our original ID, which we agreed with once we had studied ours and two apparently reliable reference pics in detail.


Ref: 20190625_df5_20190521_1015_029 hover-fly probably dasysyrphus venustus (previously thought to be scaeva pyrastri)(r+mb id@768).jpg

Image Taken on 21 May 2019 at 08:16    Image of day on 25 Jun 2019

On the Hawthorn Flowers we spotted this Hover-fly which promptly departed before we could get some more detailed pics of it. We seem to be seeing a number of new-to-us species of Hoverfly this Spring. This seems to be Syrphus Ribesii.


Ref: 20190625_df5_20190521_0816_012 hover-fly probably syrphus ribesii female on hawthorn flowers (detail crop)(r+mb id@432).jpg

Image Taken on 11 Jul 2011 at 10:19    Image of day on 25 Aug 2011

We didn't realise Hover-flies came this big or Gorgeous and had an expert confirm our ID as a Volucella zonaria. He commented 'I think it's the biggest native species of hover-fly, but only took up residence in Britain in the 1940s. ... The larvae live in wasp nests.'


Ref: 20110825_df1_20110711_1019_067 hover-fly volucella zonaria on blackberry flower (crop)(r+mb id@768).jpg

Image of day on 21 Aug 2007

Facing into and moderate wind this Female Kestrel (the 'Motorway bird') hovered and eventually dived onto prey over an adjacent hay meadow. Once loaded the sequence runs about 5 times slower than life (a bit over 1 second of real time) - what an athlete.


Ref: 20070821_kestrel hovering 20070727 (anim).gif

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