David

The first mushrooms I noticed once the rains finally came to break this year’s long dry spring. They are boletes, but I don’t know which species.

One of the West Park magpies, on what seemed to be a thankless task, looking for something to eat on a patch of dry ground.

Harlequin ladybird larvae (juvenile stage) and pupae (undeergoing metamorphosis).

Harlequins originate in the far east of Asia. They were deliberately introduced into America to control aphids. Instead they rapidly became worse pests themselves.

They were also brought to Europe, including Britain, by human activity, not deliberately this time.

First recorded in Britain in 2005. When I first started this blog, in 2009, one of the conservation bodies had a system in place to report all sightings of these beetles, to aid efforts to control them.

It didn’t work. In my haphazard sightings this year, harlequins have outnumbered all native ladybirds several times over.

Teazles flourishing by the pool at Compton Park. These pictures taken just before the plants began to flower.

Mallard and her three ducklings by the shore of the Birmingham Canal near Lock 17 (under the shadow of the Stafford Road railway viaduct).

One of the West Park squirrels, looking like its poised, about to spring.