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David

Heron at the ready

Heron at the ready

Heron at the edge of West Park’s Boating Lake island, watching the water for prey. These pictures were taken mid-May, and this bird was one of the pair engaged in courtship early that month.

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David

Green to blue: mahonia fruit

Green to blue: mahonia fruit

Fruit on a mahonia bush, changing colour from green to blue as it ripens in the spring after the plant’s midwinter flowering.

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David

Duck and two ducklings revisited

Duck and two ducklings revisited

Mallard and her two ducklings on West Park lake, seen twenty-four hours later than in this set of pictures.

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David

Green-veined white butterfly, feeding on bugloss

Green-veined white butterfly, feeding on alkanet

Green-veined white butterfly, feeding on bugloss flowers in someone’s front garden. Looks very similar to a small white, especially when the underside of the wings is rarely visible, as with this one.

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David

Yellow: azalea flowers opening

Yellow: azalea flowers opening

The bright yellow of the buds and opening flowers of one of the azalea bushes in West Park recently.

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David

A broad bodied chaser back

A broad bodied chaser back

A sign that spring is giving way to summer: damselflies and dragonflies appearing over the Compton Park pool.

This is a male broad bodied chaser dragonfly which was there yesterday. Once the sun comes out, it spends a lot of its time resting on vegetation, on the look out for passing females and for incursions into its territory from rival males.