Category: David

Collared dove sitting on a fence. For once the bird didn’t fly off as I cme down the nearby footpath.

Lambs – at least two different species are represented – on Mary Arden’s Farm. A few sheep have sneaked in as well.

Lesser tortoiseshell butterfly caterpillars spotted by the railway station at Wilmcote. One on the leaf of a hazel growing by the ramp leading to the station. The other was crawling along one of the benches on the opposite platform.

Pictured just after Easter, a profusion of tulips in the gardens of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust properties in Stratford on Avon: the birthplace itself, as well as New Place and Hall’s Croft.

Each of these gardens was planted with a different mix of tulips and other flowers, with varying carefully chosen combinations of colours and of flower types.

First swallow I spotted this spring, by the house at the end of the bridle path by the canal at Castlecroft. One day a bird resting on the horse weathervane. The next day, what might have been the same bird was on the TV aerial.

Red body on a green leaf: cardinal beetles don’t go in for camouflage by protective colouration.