Author: David

The flowers of this wayside weed are tiny. In this close-up the hooked hairs which make the plant sticky can be seen.

The whiteness of the petals is not an effect of a badly-exposed photo. That’s how the flower looked to the naked eye.

One of the largest mushroom species which can be seen locally, and quite common. These are fairly mature specimens. The roughness on the cap which gives the species its name is not always so pronounced.

Garden poppies pictured on a cloudy early morning after heavy overnight rain (above), and on a sunny midday (the opened blooms and the bud below).

These were big mushrooms similar to the field mushroom, so they were probably horse mushrooms. I couldn’t get up very close to check, so they could have been another related species. Some of these are poisonous.

They were growing just over the wall from Tettenhall Road in the grounds of Linden House (the former Masonic Hall).

Along the driveway directly opposite the recently vandalised Lodge.

Most people would be surprised that this woodland glade is only a few minutes from Wolverhampton city centre. The hillocks of the wooded end of the park are a relic of the one-time mining in the area.

It was a couple of days after the Diamond Jubilee long weekend. A floral display on the terrace of the Black Swan (aka Dirty Duck) in Stratford on Avon had obviously been designed to have a colour theme to fit the festivities.

The weather was rainy and windy, more like autumn than early summer. The white petunias didn’t appear to like the conditions, and had closed up so they were hard to spot.

But the water drops remaining on the plants and the diffused lighting added drama to those flowers which were out. I like photo opportunities when I am sitting comfortably with a nice pint in front of me.

This bee was out early one morning a couple of weeks ago gathering nectar from chives flowering in one of the city’s allotments.

Some grains of pollen can already be seen sticking to it.

The flower usually looks somewhat like a small dandelion growing on stems which can reach a couple of feet. The white filaments for dispersing the seeds over the breeze are at first glance like a dandelion clock. Get nearer, and they appear finer and silkier than dandelion parachutes.

These plants, on the outskirts of Worfield, had outer petals which were a paler yellow colour. Normally the entire flower is the colour of the inner portion here.

On a walk through Cotwall End LNR towards the end of May I spotted these crowds of day-flying moths which had antennae much longer than their bodies. Every so often they would settle on whichever set of nearby leaves were about waist height.

Most of the groups were under trees which put them into deep shade. This group was the exception: they were in a clearing with a nettle patch by the path. The pictures don’t do justice to the iridescence of their wings and bodies.

They are male longhorn moths, probably Adela reaumurella as far as I can tell.