David

Bright red beak with a yellow tip. Eyes also red, if not so bright. One of the West Park moorhens on a sunny morning.

Three different heathers growing in the same front garden. A cheap close-up lens has given the pictures a soft focus nearing the point of abstraction.

Cob (male swan) on the lake at West Park, swam towards me, perhaps in the hope of being fed.

It’s a hoverfly with a tapered abdomen which has an appearance mimicking a drone – a male bee. I’m not sure quite why. Mimics benefit when they look like something else which is unpleasant or dangerous to eat. Lots of hoverflies look like bees or wasps. But drones don’t sting. So this type opf hoverfly is a lookalike for another insect which is itself harmless.

A bluetit which seemed to be pecking away at flowers on a pear tree. I wasn’t close enough to see whether it was nibbling the flowers themselves, or insects on the flowers.

Bluebells seem slow starting to flower this year, perhaps the continuing frosty mornings. These were the first few I spotted, in Bantock Park.