Wolves Wild

Briar rose flowers with a bright greenswollen-thighed beetles busy eating pollen. Bonus picture is of a bumblebee on another flower of one of the bushes.

Female broad-bodied chaser dragonfly placing her eggs (ovipositing) in the water of a small pool in Baggeridge Country Park. She had mated with a male while I was getting my camera out. Now she was hovering over the water, dipping the rear of her abdomen under the surface again and again.

Spotted orchids flowering in Baggeridge Country Park early last month. They were in an area where there are many of this species, of southern marsh orchids, and of crosses between the two types. These were the most accessible of the first few to flower.

Coot chicks hiding among the flag irises on the edge of Bag’s Pool, Baggeridge while one of the parents heads off to get some food for them. meanwhile. an older chick from a different coot family taking food from a parent in more open water on the pool.

A cinnabar moth at rest on the leaf of a bulrush by the pond at Northycote Farm.

Magpies, wandering round on the ground, doubtless up to no good. Pictures taken in various locations.

Haws just beginning to form, with the remains of the petals of the flowers they developed from still visible on the ends of the fruits.

Heron standing on a tree fallen over the boating lake at West Park, preening the feathers on its chest.

White elderflowers seen in close-up. These were on one of the bushes by the track on Northycote Farm.

Never noticed such goslings before, but this year a second Canada goose pair have had young at West Park. This set a more modest two goslings. Seen here grazing on shore grass near the Conservatory. The other family, with their ten goslings, were nearby.

Briar roses in the hedge by the track at Northycote Farm. Each flower seemed to be attracting its own tiny insect in the morning sunlight.

Another quick visit seeing the West Park cygnets again. All six were present, but these were the ones which came closest to shore to feed.