Category: David

Purple loosestrife, its flowers rising almost to waist height. A plant which prefers damp ground – these were growing on a patch of scrub in Baggeridge Country Park.

The large white buttterfly is not a favourite of vegetable gardeners. Their caterpillars are notorious for the damage they do to brassicas (“cabbage whites”).

This adult was feeding on the nectar of a lavender someone had growing in their front garden.

A few of the Southern marsh orchids (main picture) and spotted orchids of Baggeridge Country Park as the flowering phase was just beginning to give way to the development of the seeds.

One of the cygnets on West Park lake, grooming the feathers at the base of a wing as it swims in the water.

A teazle flower-head flowers starting at the top, then moving down as a ring while the higher parts have already been fertilized with the seeds beginning to form.

On one plant the flowering section, marked by the purple of the pollen, was forning a ring about half way down the flower head. Another nearby plant had flower heads which were still green, not yet producing pollen.

Close-up of a hoverfly visiting the flowers on a ragwort – a picture dominated by shades of yellow.