Category: David

Black-headed gulls settling in the muddy field shown in the previous post. The gulls were previously resident elsewhere in Compton Park, but have moved to an environment where they are more at home.

A former playing field next door to Smestow Valley Reserve’s Barley Field. To become the water feature for the residential development on Compton Park, and currently a muddy expanse.

The field is in the lower course of the Graiseley brook. This is one of the hidden streams of Wolverhampton, enclosed for almost all its length since Victorian times. It joins the Smestow just beyond the Railway Walk and the Staffs & Worcs canal, which are behind the trees in the background of the picture.

The brook used to run underground here, though evidently close to the surface – parts of the field became marshy after rain. Now it has been exposed.

The recent heavy rain has filled up the brook, as well as converting the rest of the field to soggy mud. The picture was taken yesterday. The mud might have dried a little with today’s welcome repite in the weather.

This small web was (more or less) horizontal in the long grass of Barley Field in the Smestow Valley LNR.

The heavy dew showed it was built up of a complex network of filaments, not the traditional radial and concentric circles pattern.

A plant growing in someone’s front garden: it just caught my eye.

This clover, just about to open, was pictured in the early morning after a heavy dew.

No dew visible on these two open flowers, though they were taken at the same time and place.

It would be an attractive plant if it could be tamed from its very fast growth. Instead it smothers almost anything in its path.