Category: David

Meadow salsify (jack go to bed at noon) seed head, plant growing by the path at Baggeridge Country Park.

Swan which wanted to get a hundred yards or so along the Avon at Stratford in a hurry. Instead of swimming it took a short hop flight where its feet never rose higher than the surface of the water and the take-off segued directly into the landing. I couldn’t see it doing anything special which needed a rush once it had landed.

Teazle in flower by the Compton Park pool, attracting a peacock butterfly and a hoverfly to feed.

Banded demoiselles, brightly coloured damselflies most likely to be spotted flying over water or resting on waterside vegetation. The males are an electric blue, and the females an electric green which despite its vividness can make them harder to spot against the leaves they are on.

Great crested grebes on the large lake by the River Blythe at the Packhorse Bridge Nature Reserve. One of the birds was rising out of the water as it swam – as far as I could see, just to shake its feathers.

Male common darter dragonfly resting on the handrail of the footbridge over Compton Park pool. There have been some there in late summer every year since the pool was created in 2013.