PotM Calendar
The Photo of the Month (see gallery) is a year-round calendar of wildlife and nature images with story contributions from visitors, friends and fellow photographers.
When it comes to nature photography, it's not only those exciting tales of high adventure that often accompany talent and skill for a fabulous result. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a well-timed shot or well-framed one can say as much about you as a photographer. So, if you'd like to showcase one of your pictures here, free, for one calendar month with a bio or personal account, then this page is for you.
Leysdown on Sea, Isle of Sheppey
As winter turns to spring, field posts strung with barbed wire become boundary lines and feeding spots for a small dark-hooded bird about the size of a robin with a song reminiscent of *two stones hitting each other.
As the breeding season begins, pairs of stonechats flit back and forth between the ground and wired field posts, hunting for seeds and insects, claiming territory (as power couples do) to let others know that some corner of a farmer’s field, that is forever England, is now exclusively theirs – farming practices permitting.
Males in full breeding plumage are striking, bearing a black head and throat, a white half-collar, a white rump, and an orange-red breast. Females are paler but no less given to perching in places of prominence, as if to spy out even more land to expand their UK range and distribution – a notion not so far-fetched, considering what they’ve accomplished in the last 20 years by the chatter they’ve sent by post and wire along the boundaries of our agricultural fencing.
From their western strongholds in Devon and Cornwall, they've crept north and eastwards all from making an exhibition of themselves, venturing as far as The Isle of Sheppey to cover 80% of our countryside – a feat encouraged by milder winters and a nationwide wire-fenced network that has steered them away from annual migrations to exploit fields much like this one, all year round.
*Recorded by Paul Kelly, courtesy of xeno-canto
Special announcements or simple hellos. Place your message or link here as part of your PotM agreement. With 10 places left for 2025, the PotM Calendar is closed until February 15th. To learn more about posting news, comments and events under a PotM agreement, see our Terms of Use page, where you can submit your photo (along with your story) during the last two weeks of every month.
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