Category: David

Plums on the same branch ripening at different rates. Growing in the orchard at Anne Hathaway’s Cottage, Shottery.

It’s been a good year for lords and ladies (wild arum) with lots of berries ripeing. A patch of the plants were growing in small groups at the end of Coppice Lane, Tettenhall.

Shades of green in these monkey puzzle flowers at the end of a branch on a tree by Codsall railway station.

Heron looking alert but unfazed at how close I was. Standing in a willow tree, no foliage back in January 2014.

Crinkly lichen growing on the trunk of a tree in Himley Plantation.

Common darter dragonfly at rest on the wooden railing of the pool at Compton Park. Another brief presence which seems to be over. The first summer after the pool had been made, it was alive with damselflies and dragonflies, several species of each, present in some numbers. Every year since, the vegetation has taken over more and more of the open water, and insect abundance has gone down.

This year there have been just a few damselflies, almost all common blues. Dragonflies have been few and far between for a couple of years now. If there have been any at all this year, I’ve missed them. Here is one from 2016.

UPDATE: weeks after I scheduled this to appear, I finally saw two male common darters in the area in early September. Pictures coming in October.