Author: David

A hoverfly gathering nectar. A few grains of pollen are sticking to its back.

The spikiness of this artichoke is a clue to the plant’s relationship to thistles.

There is quite a colony of teazels among the vegetation on the bank of the river Penk as it goes through Penkridge.

Here they are in flower, seen from the bridge which carries the Stafford road over the river.

A late brood of swallow chicks were still being fed by their parents a week or so back, in one of the barns at Mary Arden’s farm, Wilmcote.

Evening primrose growing on the sandy bank by the side of the road of one of the little lanes near to Worfield.

This rush was in flower near the Birmingham Canal towpath just before the junction with the Staffs & Worcs canal.

A water lily flowering among the mass of vegetation surrounding and on the surface of the small pond at Bantock Park.

This hoverfly was resting on a leaf which still had some drops of water after a shower.

Male speckled wood butterflies take a woodland glade (or in this case a garden with lots of trees and bushes) as their territory. When another male tries to butt in, they get quite determined in seeing it off.

I thought this picture of one seen from head on gave a more accurate portait of their aggressiveness that the more commonly shown wings outstretched resting pose.

A scrambled egg fungus on a tree stump attracted a slug out to eat during the middle of the day.

One of the many unbellifers which thrive in the field behind Compton Lock.

Scrambled egg fungus (it has other, less appetizing names) is supposedly a fairly common fungus, though I have never noticed it before this summer.

It grows on tree stumps and other dead wood – those shown here are on wood mulch.

Once it appears, its appearance changes rapidly over the course of a day or so. It starts off the pale yellow colour which gets it the “scrambled egg” monicker.

It then fades to a white which soon develops a dirty-looking brown, grey or black surface.