Wolves Wild

Nettle leaved bellflowers clustering around the stem of a wild plant growing opposite the Wildside Activity Centre.

A Canterbury bellflower (plus small insect) seen while passing a front garden.

Male common darter dragonfly patrolling its territory over one lobe of the new pool at Compton Park.

A resting female of the same species featured as one of yesterday’s posts.

Yarrow flowering pink rather than the more normal white. Although these were in the wildflower area of Bantock Park, they may have been an escapee cultivated variety.

My favourite way to watch wildlife is in the outdoors section of a pub, with a nice pint in front of me.

This common dater landed on the edge of the car park of the Combermere Arms, not far from the table where I was sitting. It stayed long enough for me to get my camera out and fire off a few shots. It then flew off, circled the car park several times, before landing in the same sunny spot for another few minutes.

Common darters are small and common (duh) British dragonflies. This one was a female: the males are redder.

Burdock flowers beginning to open, with a tiny snail hanging on. A red-eyed fly also seems to be after a share of whatever is on offer.

Pair of humbug snails mating on a plastic garden table on the morning after a rainy night.

Water crowfoot flowering in the River Penk on the outskirts of Coven.

The plant is shown in flower in the Millais painting of the death of Ophelia.

Beautiful demoiselle damselfly which seemed to prefer perching on hawthorn leaves when it took pauses from patrolling its territory over a stretch of the canal at Wightwick.

Scarletina boletes are a fairly common mushroom which, like all boletes, has pores rather than gills on the undersides of the caps.

When they are cut, their flesh very quickly turns dark blue.

CORRECTION: identified by Lukas Large as lurid boletes

The leaves at the end of two of the twigs of a cherry tree on someone’s front lawn were already turning into the colours of autumn early this month.

Close-up views of a mass of meadowsweet flowers, white petals set off with creamy parts.

Cinnabar moth caterpillars are strongly coloured to warn would-be predators of the toxins they absorb from their food plant, ragwort.

The adults are also brightly coloured, and fly by day.