Wolves Wild

An ashy mining bee (Andrena cineraria) resting on a shiny bay leaf, perhaps warming itself in the sunlight.

The West Park Canada goose parental pair with their one surviving gosling. The gosling was eating in a patch of short grass with lots of daisies, when the parents decided to head towards the water.

The adults strolled at a stately pace. In an effort to keep up with them, the youngster had to goose step to keep up.

By the time it reached the bank of the lake, it was in the lead. Then it found something else it wanted to nibble.

Compton Lock is at the southern end of the summit level of the Staffs and Worcs Canal. It is reputedly the first pound lock to be built in the burst of canal building which transformed inland transport as part of the original Industrial Revolution.

The lock gates need replacing from time to time, but the current set have been in place long enough for a healthy growth of liverworts, ferns and other plants by the downstream junction of the two lower gates, which are steadily watered whenever the lock is full.

A holly blue butterfly resting, its wings folded, on grounds strewn with chunks of wood chip mulch.

A small flock of some half dozen or so starlings feeding on the ground on a footpath.

Three families of greylag geese with goslings in West Park this year. The goslings in the different families at different ages, but when they come ashore the adults often bring them together so they can share lookout duty.

When I first spotted them, the goslings were feeding among daisies in one of the patches of short grass near the lake. For reasons which weren’t clear to me, the adults decided to herd them nearer to the lake, and incidentally a little closer to where I was standing. I thought they were heading for the safety of the water. Instead, they stopped part way across the path. The goslings got themselves settled, and started hunting the cracks in the path for morsels to eat.