Category: David

Mallard drake coming out of eclipse – the non-showy plumage adopted after the breeding season. The patches of green feathers on his head are the harbingers of the end of dowdiness.

Sloes up high. From the same patch of blackthorn where the fruit have already featured at earlier stages of ripening.

The only ones left on the bushes near the paths now are the ones out of reach. Those at arms length have been picked, presumably as a flavouring for gin.

Trees in Bantock Park, with leaves just beginning to take on autumn colours at the very end of August.

Raven mobbing a sparrowhawk, vigorously trying to get it to go away, over the Barley Field.

Such events are over too quickly to change to a more appropriate lens.

Common darter dragonfly low over water as it circled round patrolling its territory.

Evening primrose, originally a plant of the Americas, but now commonly found both in gardens and growing wild – and as extracts on the shelves of what claim to be herbal remedies.

The bee seems to be determined to force its way through the flower.