Category: David

A young moorhen on Old Nursery Pond, striding out on the shallow water among some lily pads.

The first shield bug nymphs have started appearing, with this pair on a ripening raspberry. There seemed to be adults mating every day during this year’s long hot spring.

Sloes in teh Barley Field hedge, ripening. These were at shoulder level. When they are ripe, there will be a race between birds and gin drinkers to decide who gets the benefit.

Cinnabar moth caterpillar actively chomping away at a ragwort early one morning.. Some years, many ragowrks have several of these caterpillars eating them away. This year I have been carefully inspecting the plats I have come across: this is the only caterpillar I’ve spotted.

Shaggy parasols are normally one of our larger autumn mushrooms. Tghis one was struggling to grow in unpropitious circumstances, in the small patch of bare earth around one of the lime trees on the pavement edge of a main road into town.

Female mallard and her by now well-grown duckling, which was a singleton wen I first noticed it when recently hatched. Now well grown and beginning to get adult feathers.