Heron courtship, West Park, early in May. By the time of my next visit in the middle of the month, the birds had built a nest and appeared to be brooding.
The nest itself is hard to spot, well hidden among leaves. In these pictures the only glimpses of the bird on the nest is its back or its head just above the parapet.
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.
Fruit on a mahonia bush, changing colour from green to blue as it ripens in the spring after the plant’s midwinter flowering.
Mallard and her two ducklings on West Park lake, seen twenty-four hours later than in this set of pictures.
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.
The bright yellow of the buds and opening flowers of one of the azalea bushes in West Park recently.