David

The wildflower meadow area of Bantock Park doesn’t seem to me to have as diverse a range of wildflowers as it did a few years ago. But one species which is hanging on is cowslips.

A long-tailed tit, one of two or three which were flitting about high in one of the trees overhanging the lake in West Park. The tit seemed to be busy pecking at the lichen which was growing thickly on the branches of the tree. Perhaps it was gathering some. Moss and lichen are important building materials for long-tailed tit nests.

The West Park greylag geese have lost half their goslings. They had grown quite big, so it might have been a fox which took them. The remaining pair, still growing fast, are being guarded as fiercely as ever by the three adults.

Dandelions after they’ve finished flowering. For one, the seeds have ripened and been dispersed by the wind, with perhaps one final seed still clinging to the plant.

On another stem of the same plant, the seeds are still ripening, and have not yet opened to form a ‘dandelion clock’.

A scarlet moth caterpillar climbing on a stick, the remains of one of last year’s plants. Anther one was nearby on a living leaf.

There were several of these caterpillars around, but now they’ve disappeared. Hopefully, most of them are now pupating, and will be on the wing later in the summer.

A pair of the West Park tufted ducks resting on a fallen tree by one of the islands in the lake. I can’t remember ever seeing a tuftie out of the water in the park before – the bird sleep afloat. Although they were at opposite ends of the log, they seemed to be a pair. Perhaps they are thinking of nesting on the island. That, too, would be a first as far as I know.