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David

Lords and ladies eaten by badgers

Lords and ladies eaten by badgers

More lords and ladies growing by the Railway Walk at Castlecroft. The flowers and the surrounding spathes had been eaten, almost certainly by badgers: there was a lot of evidence of badger activity right next to them.

Lords and ladies eaten by badgers

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David

Geese and goslings flotilla one

Geese and goslings flotilla one

As things were a month ago on West Park lake. One of the greylag goose pairs sheparding their then recently hatched goslings swimming from the direction of one of the islands in the lake to one of the less frequented patches of short grass on the mainland, so the little ones could graze.

The mother goose led the way, then the three goslings all in a line, with the gander as tail end charlie.

When they got to the far side, two of the three goslings were struggling to get up the steep stone wall of the bank.

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David

Lords and ladies with spathes

Lords and ladies with spathes

Lords and ladies, otherwise known as wild arum and by a host of other names. A plant which prefers shady places on the woodland floor, and flowers just as the trees are coming into leaf. The flowers are enclosed in leaflike structures (actually a bract) called spathes.

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David

Birds on a daisy lawn

Birds on a daisy lawn

Daisies flowering in such profusion that one of the lawns in West Park looked like a sea of white from a distance. Resting in its midst a pair of Canada geese, one sitting, the other standing on one leg. Occasionally stretching out for a nibble of daisy or grass.

Nearby, a carrion crow, on the lookout for whatever it could get. Further away, a pair of mistle thrushes were also hunting.

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David

Spruce cones forming

Spruce cones forming

A spruce of some kind with cones at the end of its dangling branches. I don’t know whether the pinkish cones are the flowers, or whether they had been fertilised and were just beginning the ripening of the seeds they held.

Spruce cones forming
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David

Tortoiseshell feeding on dandelions

Tortoiseshell feeding on dandelions

A tortoiseshell butterfly with its proboscis extended into one of the dandelion flowers it was busy feeding from.