Whenever I visit Baggeridge Country Park, I can’t resist taking pictures of whichever of the Bagot goats are visible on Toposcope Hill – they’re kept there to control the scrub.
This was mid-morning, but already sweltering. Only one goat in sight, stretched out in the sun.
A big mature monkey puzzle tree, in a front garden on Oxbarn Avenue. I think these are male flowers, a mass of spiky stamens. Coming to the end of having done their task for the year, they were all now turning brown.
Damselfly mating looks like it could have been the inspiration for whoever developed the method for planes to refuel in flight. These azure damselflies were over a pool in Baggeridge Country Park recently.
A lone birch bolete fungus, growing on a front lawn. Already somewhat the worse for wear, partially nibbled. The remains of a slime trail showed that at least one of the guilty parties was a snail or slug.
A white tailed bumble bee crawling all over one of the flowers on an orange ball tree at the back of Compton Lock, working at gathering as much as possible.
There’s normally hundreds of orchids (southern marsh, spotted, or crosses of the two) on a patch of level ground at the back of Toposcope Hill, Baggeridge Country Park. This year, there have been precisely two. Here’s hoping that it’s been the cold spring we’ve had which means they’ve held off flowering, that they will be back next summer.