Category: David

This clump of ragwort was proving very attractive to insects early in August. A cinnabar moth caterpillar is near to the ragged white butterfly (above) while the hoverfly (below) came along a minute or so later.

Looking down Darlington Street from Queens Square towards Chapel Ash, it almost looks like the former church is rising through a wood.

Keeping this illusion with a closer view meant a very careful choice of where to frame the picture.

There are two young coots here, swimming and eating a few yards from each other.

They are the same birds feature in the post of August 19th
when they must have been very recently hatched.

This family of swans include a second adult which wouldn’t line up to get in the same shot of the others, as well as the three well-grown young seen below. They have a large territory heading out towards the junction with the Bradley arm of the canal.

Todays post feature water birds seen on a stroll along the towpath of the Birmingham canal, heading from the city centre in the direction of Birmingham, a couple of weeks ago.

This duck and her two ducklings were in a gap in the wall above the canal a few yards from Bilston Road.

From the middle of August, heathy areas like this part of Cannock Chase near Brocton,  become a mass of purple as the heather comes into flower.

By early August these plums were ripe enough to show the beginnings of the bloom on their surface.

One of the historic breeds farm animals at Shugborough Park. If these are indeed Bagot goats, they are descended from the semi-wild herd of Blithfield Hall, on the opposite side of Cannock Chase, and be of a critically endangered rare breed.

The billy is relaxing above, and the kid, below, is eating with a jackdaw seeming to mimic its actions.

This clump had just a couple of flowers remaining when I saw it growing at the edge of the river Anker in Tamworth in the middle of August.

At first the kernels of the berries are green and the outer covers are a paler green, and cover less than half the kernel. To me, they look more like miniature acorns at this stage.

As the berry ripens, the kernel swells. The covering layer begins to redden and to advance down the kernel.

Riper = yet redder cover with yet more complete coverage.

Varying degrees of ripeness in berries which are almost touching. Perhaps it was the time of day I was there, but there seemed to be a direct effect that the berries in the sunniest spots had come furthest along.

These pictures all taken within a few minutes, of berries on the same yew tree in West Park.

Hat tip: Jefny.