A male azure blue damselfly hovers, clasping a female just behind her head, in preparation for mating. Then the pair take off. The final picture in the sequence was the only one I managed with the air in the air. Most of their bodies were hidden behind the leaf of a read, but it’s just possible to make out that the female hadn’t yet curled round her abdomen to form the so-called heart configuration. Then they moved off deeper into the vegetation.
A purple tinge to the flowers of a yarrow. This seems to be particularly noticeable in yarrows this year.
A moth at rest, its wings spread out on a plastic garden chair. It’s possibly a small dusty wave.
The swan family on West Park lake still have all five cygnets. They seem to be growing really quickly, and to be ever-hopeful of being fed.
Frothy elder flowers, seen close up. In one of the pictures, a tiny sprig of privet flower has also managed to intrude.
This used to be a regular sight at this time of year, but no longer. A young swallow rests on a telegraph wire, pausing in its flying practice. Soon it would have been setting out on its first long flight across the Sahara, arriving in time for its second summer of the year, now in the southern hemisphere.
These pictures are from a dozen years ago, no swallows since.