Category: David

Comma butterfly standing on the edge of a damp patch in an area of bare soil. Its proboscis was extended; I think it was sucking moisture from the damp patch.

The first set of West Park coot chicks which hatched this year. I’d seen one of them in the water a few days earlier, but it looked like it had been touching the nest the whole time before it climbed back in. This time two of them were a bit more venturesome. The parents were watchful, but not to the point of exercising close supervision.

After a while, they climbed back home.

Scarlet tiger moth caterpillars crawling on the leaves of alkanet plants. The yellow and black stripes are a warning to predators such as birds with hungry young chicks: beware, we are toxic. The stiff hairs along their bodies are for the same effect.

Shown in some of the pictures are blobs which show the caterpillars use the leaves not just as support and food source, but also as their toilet.

This year’s Canada goose pair watch as their two surviving goslings graze near the West Park lake. Then they notice another of the Canadas coming towards them. The gander immediately goose-steps forward in threat posture, clearing their zone of comfort.

Beech flowers dangling from the tree, the red-brown colour matching that of the leaves.

A wagtail feeding on the bank of the West Park lake. It was walking along the water line; sometimes above the water, sometimes getting its feet wet. I wasn’t sure, but thought that when it bobbed its head down to nab another victim, it was getting them from the water, where it shallowed meeting the shore.