David

This sequence shows a young swallow preening.

It was so wrapped up in what it was doing that it carried on as I came nearer and nearer to the post it was perched on.

The pictures were taken by the estuary of the river Exe in Devon.

The Quay in Exeter is a former dock and now leisure area on the river Exe, only a few minutes walk from the city centre. It is the permanent home to several species of water birds, including cormorants.

This is a young bird which spent a long time drying itself in the sun as it stood on a buoy in the middle of the river.

The preferred resting place seems to be with the birds standing in a row on the concrete river wall directly downstream from the junction with the Exeter canal. Some birds seem to be on the lookout for prey: others spending time grooming.

This and the next few posts were taken during a brief visit to Devon towards the end of July.

A normally small side stream joins the river Penk in the Pendeford Mill reserve. This year the stream was decidedly swollen after the persistent heavy rain.

Other mushrooms also form rings as they spread out from year to year, but these are the ones most commonly found growing in a circle.

This hoverfly was so busy gathering nectar from the umbellifers in Barley Field that it let me get really close. Some grains of pollen are sticking to its body, and my reflection can just about be made out in its eye.

The Pendeford Mill Local Nature Reserve lies by the river Penk as it leaves Wolverhampton.

There’s an open day every July, and the place is well worth a visit.

This year the foul summer meant that it was extremely wet underfoot, and the insects making the best of the conditions were mosquitoes. I came away with more bites than pictures.

The first two views are of the same large pool, the first beyond the entrance to the reserve. The balsam which is present in the second picture is spreading in much of the site.

The weed covering the surface of the pool in the final picture is something else which seems to have taken advantage of this year’s conditions.

Shaggy parasols are one of the largest native mushrooms, distinctive with their scaly cap.

A group of them appear regularly at this time of year by one of the entrances to West Park.

This rather unprepossessing flower was one of the many Oxford ragworts thriving in Barley Field, Smestow Valley.

The magpie further from the camera is one of this year’s chicks, now half grown. The nearer bird is one of its parents.

Lambs’ lugs are also known as lambs’ ears – another flower which caught my eye in someone’s front garden.