David

Young robin in the hedgerow by the towpath at Comton, as its plumage was just changing from the speckled juvenile feathers and the red breast was beginning to develop. It landed less than an arm’s length from me, and carried on watching as I took these pictures.

Feeding time: different species of insects busy eating on umbellifer flowers beside the Compton Rough footpath.

Feeding time: a pair of moorhens on the canal at Wightwick feeding single recently-hatched chick.

Bloodsuckers (not really what they feed on). also called common red soldier beetles (Rhagonycha fulva). Late last month, every umbellifer flower head I looked at in the Barley Field seemed to have some of them feeding along with other insects.

Towards the end of July, green-veined white butterflies were present in some numbers by the canal on the stretch between Aldersley Junction and Newbridge. Here is one resting on canalside alkanet plants, occasionally moving to show the veining on the underwing which distinguishes this species from the small white butterfly.

Thistle flower buds, looking in close-up more like cacti than any kind of temperate zone vegetation, then the soft flowers when the buds open.