Author: David

A hoverfly, or more precisely some species of drone fly, resting on an ivy leaf. It was constantly moving its mouth parts, perhaps cleaning them.

A thing that never happens has happened again: a West Park tufted duck, out of the water. It’s a different tuftie this time, a female, but she’s resting on the same fallen bough.

These deceivers were just starting to emerge, peeping through the short grass. Even when full grown, they look similar to several other small brownish mushrooms, hence their name.

More pictures of fly agaric mushrooms from Bantock Park. It’s easy to see why this species is a favourite of illustrators.

A spider climbing up a long single thread of silk. I think it’s a common garden spider, a female. It was rather smaller than I’d expect of this species at this time of year. The pattern on the back of its abdomen looked right for the species: they are also sometimes called cross spiders. The huge abdomen in proportion to the rest of the body is likely because it is swollen with eggs.

A heron has been perched in the same willow on the West Park lake island for several days recently. This time, I visited the park in the early afternoon. The heron was there once again, this time asleep, or giving a veryu good impression of sleeping.