Category: David

Tapered drone flies ((Eristalis pertinax/em>), a common hoverfly species. Also one or the species that’s easier to photograph, when they spend time sunbathing, resting on leaves.

Part of the blackthorn hedge around the Barely Field, most of the flowers out. Blackthorn flowers open before the leaves, which adds to their effect when seen from a distance. It looks like their might be a good crop of sloes this year.

Yes, robins’ traditional association is with Christmas, not with springtime. But this one was singing recently in one of the bushes in the hedge around the Barley Field. And the bush, with leaves which were then just opening, was a may (more commonly called hawthorn.

Deansgate on Tettenhall Road, previously the local base of Customs and Excise, nowadays “serviced luxury offices”. In front of the building, what I suppose is meant to be a garden, including a large patch of lesser celandines, seen here through the fence separating the property from the pavement.

A grey wagtail walking along the wall of prefab weir on the canal at Compton, pausing to pick up insects along the way. It was a male. The female briefly also flew in (last picture in the set) before heading off to the opposite bank. A little while later, he also went there.

Looking like decoratively painted geometrical sculptures, flowers on one of the larch trees. I think the pink and yellow flowers are the female ones, already pre-figuring the shape of the cones they will eventually form. The rather insignificant-looking yellow-brown tufts may be the male flowers.