Category: David

A pair of mallards on West Park lake, very determinedly searching underwater for things to eat. Occasionally they would raise their heads briefly for air.

Another of the shade-loving plants of the woodland understorey which times its flowering before the shade gets too complete. When large patches of wild garlic plants are in flower, they can be detected well before they come into sight.

Male blackbird using one of the lichen-covered gravestones in Worfield churchyard as a lookout point to survey her territory.

Yellow archangel, yet another of the plants of the woodland floor which gets its flowering season over early, before the trees have grown they kleaves above to capture all the sunlight.

A scene from modern farming. A tractor ploughs a field at Wyken, spraying the freshly ploughed soil with, let’s call it liquid manure. The plough was being followed by a flock of the rooks which nest nearby. A couple of jackdaws were getting in on the act, as well.

This is just the sort of scene which used to form a standard illustration in books about nature for young children, and may well still be so for all I know.

Winter purslane. It’s native on the western side of the Americas, where it’s alternatively known as miners lettuce or Indian lettuce, so presumably considered edible, at least at a pinch.

Flowering as it grew by a roadside at Worfield, so presumably a garden escape.