Wolves Wild

Knapweeds in the wildflower area in Bantock Park, one with a visiting honey bee.

The flowers on this plant were more elaborate than on the many others nearby.

Azure damselflies, which seem to be outnumbering other damselfly species around here by a much bigger margin than they do most years. This is a male. The females, harder to spot, are green where the males are blue.

Yellow fieldcap mushrooms, which seem to be popping up all over the place this summer. The yellow of the caps is very strong when they first emerge, but fades as the caps widen. These were on a pile of wood chippings in Bantock Park.

One of the West Park magpies, concentrating totally on the task, searching for morsels to eat among the short grass.

Marmalade hover flies, they’re tiny. When seen close to, their most obvious feature, at least to me, is bright red eyes which look disproportionately large. There’s been a lot of them about this month.

Heron on one of the favoured perches on the West Park lake, a fallen but still growing willow coming over the water from one of the islands. The water’s colour is because something has been added to prevent algal bloom.