Category: David

The third species of damselfly on the Compton Park pond this year. Like the large red and azure species, this blue tailed individual is a male, and shares their habit of resting on horizontal bulrush leaves hoping to attract a female.

Seeds of a sycamore, with the wings for carrying them some distance from the tree, as they were just starting to ripen.

Lurid boletes, which grow in the same area of a front lawn every summer. Their colours are quite dark, but not exactly lurid.

Nettle flowers, not very conspicuous at the tops of the stems.

An insect, possibly a three-spotted nettle bug, shelters under the highest leaf.

Further down the plant, the remains of flowers which have done their work, been shed, and landed on a leaf.

On Compton Park pond, large red damselflies. The few which have been visible have all been male. When it’s sunny, and not too breezy, they will fly around over the water. Then they will rest for a while on some nearby flat surface, often a horizontal section of bulrush leaf, hoping to attract a female.

In the foreground, hawkbits flowering. These orange ones are possibly a garden variety, but if so theyre’s lots, like these, growing wild.

Out of focus in the background, it’s possible to make out the colours of other flowers. Yellow, of greater celandines; blue of forget-me-nots; and, almost hidden by leaves, self-heal showing purple.