Category: David

Bumblebee busy gathering nectar from the flowers on purple loosestrifes.

Autumn seems to be coming early this year. Fruits and berries are ripening two or three weeks sooner than normal. The birds are eating them so eagerly there may be none left for the depths of winter.

The wet weather at the end of August has also started the autumn fungi flush before summer is properly over. These fly agarics were peeping through the grass under a birch tree behind Bantock House at the end of August. The first ones I’ve noticed (anywhere) in previous years have been in the last week of September.

Beech mast (nuts) with a protective cover complete with what appear to be coarse hairs.

Mass of ox-eye daisies growing at the edge of a corn field, seen when the petals had dropped off the flowers and the seeds were beginning to develop. A last few fading poppies rose above the daisies.

Meadow brown butterflies feeding on the flowers of a thistle growing at the edge of Barley Field a month ago.

The glossiness of the fat hips and the leaves of a rugosa rose enhanced after recent rainfall.