Wolves Wild

Delicate pale purple buds and flowers of water mint at the edge of the pool in Compton Park.

Coot chick on West Park lake, heading towards me in the soon to be disappointed hope of being fed.

Seed cases (pods?) on yellow flag irises. The seeds are dispersed by water.

Large group of Canada geese circling round before they came in to land on the fishing lake at Pool Hall. They were communicating with each other very noisily, but not flying in the usual V formation.

It’s an insect, though I don’t know what type. It’s green. It’s on a grass seed-head.

Nettle growing by the edge of a canal, its leaves and ripening seeds back-lit by the mid-morning sun.

Poppies at the edge of a field of almost ripe wheat, and a closer view of an ear of the cereal.

Chicken of the Woods is a fungus which grows like a stack of shelves on the trunks of trees – here high on a dead tree. It is reputed to taste like chicken and is considered by some to be a delicacy.

Berries ripening on St John’s Wort bushes in Bantock Park. The larger berries are at different stages of ripeness on the same bush (and pictured at the same time). The other picture is of a bush only yards away, evidently a different variety.

In mid-August several common darters had divided the water of Wetland Pool into their territories. many of them seemed to prefer resting or displaying on the wood of the footbridge railings or the planks of the waterside decking when they weren’t flying patrolling their territories.

There are at least four, possibly five, individuals here, all pictured within a few minutes. There were at least as many in the air. As far as I could see, all were male.

A common darter dragonfly rests on a wooden pole which vandals have thrown into the water of Wetland Pool in Compton Park.

Red-eyed fly walking across the half-open flowers of a ragwort.