David

West Park magpie sitting on a fence. Keeping one wary eye on me while it tells off another magpie out of shot.

Wild arums (cuckoo pint, lords and ladies), at the stage where the flower was just about to open. Most of these never did. Instead, they were eaten, probably by a badger.

The log which the West Park turtle uses for sunbathing, now getting even more crowded. Here also used by a juvenile black-headed gull, and a greylag goose.

Small tortoiseshell butterfly be a path in the Barley Field, resting with its wings almost folded, gently opening and closing them.

There seems to have been a baby boom along the canal this year, with lots of mallard duclings hatching at once. This little lot are from two broods on the stretch near Mopps Farm bridge, in the countryside beyond Castlecroft

When I took this picture, I had wandered along all the footpaths crossing the Barley Field, and this was the olny cowslip I saw flowering. A few more have since appeared.