Category: David

Goslings with parent Canada geese cropping short grass, lit by early morning sun. One of the young ones is very much smaller than the others.

Another brief visit to West Park by a heron – once again there one day

Bratch Locks – originally opened 1772 as a three lock staircase, later converted to three separate locks, with only yards separating their gates. Notoriously tricky to navigate. Above thr flight is a small octagonal toll house, which is half-hiding the lock-keeper’s cottage beyond. The cottage is one of the few on the canal network still occupied by a lock-keeper.

Bratch Pumping Station, across the road from the locks. Built 1895 in finest Ruskin-inspired pseudo-Venetian gothic. Built to supply Bilston with a water supply independent of Wolverhampton (the two were separate municipalities as recently as 1962).

Still used for water extraction from the sandstone underground, feeding the Goldthorne Hill reservoir. The original steam engines long decommisioned but still in situ. In normal years there are open days where one of the engines is steamed up.

Pair of azure damselflies resting on a waterside leaf by the Old Nursery Pond, getting into position for mating.

Lat last month when these pictures were taken, the greylag goslings in West Park were already losing their juvenile down, growing adult plumage.

Moorhen parent busy preening, with a lone chick standing close by one of the islands in the West Park lake.