Category: David

The beetle hopped away before I managed to see it from the front to have a better chance of identifying it.

Not spit, and nothing to do with cuckoos. Instead, it is a protective foam around the nymphs of frog-hoppers, which of course are not frogs, but insects.

These oystercatchers were feeding on a golf course near bordering the Marsh Lane Nature Reserve in Solihull.

The dark marks towards the end of the bills come from where the birds have probed the soil in search of food.

The more distant bird has a somewhat shorter bill, and legs which are greyish. It is a young bird.

This heron (I presume it is the same one) is a regular on the lake at West Park.

When it is there, it seems to spend most of its time on one or other of the islands.

While the Wolverhampton Show was on in July its morning perch was on one of the rowing boats parked by the island.

This small moth was resting on the leg of a plastic garden chair.

Detail above and wider view below are from the Top Island pool in the Bumblehole and Warrens Hall LNR in Dudley.

These are from the small pond by the roadside outside Boscobel House.

Quite a common butterfly where there are lots of trees and shrubs – their original habitat was clearings in woods.

A parasitic plant.

These were growing in the meadow in the Coombes Valley RSPB reserve, near Leek.

The mating ground of these Common blue damselflies was a small pond on the Coombes Valley
RSPB reserve in the Staffordshire moorlands.

The pictures were taken early in July.

Reed leaves above, and a foxglove flower below.