David

Magpie perching on the top of some temporary fencing. As ever, a;ert to any opportunity as well as any danger.

Flag irises, in flower. Growing at the edge of the Severn, the Quarry, Shrewsbury.

Just a little upstream from the loop in the Severn almost enclosing the centre of Shrewsbury, a mandarin duck, a drake, swimming in the river. It looked well fed and healthy, as far as it was possible to tell from the far bank.

Globe water lilies, just as the flowers were beginning to open. These were growing in the slower current at the edge of the Severn, seen from the riverside footpath in the Quarry.

Ladybirds: red with black spots, black with red spots (some of which have another black dot in the middle). They are all the recent interloper, harlequin ladybirds.

A roadside wild poppy, two stems from the same plant, seen at the same time.

One topped by its flower.

On the other, the flower has already done its work. The petals have been shed, the seed-case and its contents are beginning to ripen.