David

Baggeridge Country Park: the bagot goats busy with their task of clearing the scrub on the slopes of Periscope Hill.

On the canal at Compton, a late summer brood of young moorhens being fed short pieces of water weed by one of the parents.

Brown hawker (probably – they kept moving too fast for a clear view) dragonflies on patrol over their chosen territories: one a stretch of canal between Compton and Wightwick, the other by prefab weir a little further along the same canal, heading towards Meccano Bridge.

Even in the heat of summery August, the first signs that autumn’s coming. Wild arum berries already ripening in a shady spot under trees.

This year’s cygnets by the West Park lake. Originally there were six in the brood, a number which held until they were getting to be almost as big as adults. For a few weeks, I only visited the park occasionally, and never spotted the swan family. When I did finally seen them again, there were only five of the younger birds.

After heavy rain in summer there is usually a burst of fungi before the main flush in the autumn. I noticed all these different species (grey spotted amanita, bolete, scaly earthball, clouded agaric) on the same walk in mid-August.