Teazles with the flowers forming at the top of their tall spikes. Pictures spread over the course of a week earlier this month.
#lockdown – coot chicks, red down gone
When coot chicks hatch there is a red patch in the down above their beaks, presumably a trigger for their parents to feed them.
As the young get bigger and more independent, this red patch is replaced by down the same colour as covering the rest of the bird – the stage this year’s first broods have now reached. These pictures from West Park
#lockdown – Cucumber green spiders
Cucumber green spiders – tiny, bright green and quite common, thoug I had never noticed them before life under the pandemic meant more time carefully looking at the plants in the garden.
Females about a quarter inch long; males (second and sixth pictures in set) about half that size.
#lockdown – Bantock Park squirrel snack time
Two squirrels seen on a recent visit to Bantock Park.
One had found a bit of ice cream wrapper, and was licking it with evident enjoyment.
The other was very protective of the peanut it had been given.
#lockdown – goslings, early morning sun
Goslings with parent Canada geese cropping short grass, lit by early morning sun. One of the young ones is very much smaller than the others.
#lockdown – heron standing tall in willow
Another brief visit to West Park by a heron – once again there one day