Wolves Wild

Swift at the same nest featured in the previous post. It seemed either to be trying to scare away the occupant, or to be trying to get into the nest itself. That would be unlikely: it’s a much bigger bird.

House martin peeping out of its nest yesterday on one of the houses facing the village green at Berkswell (Solihull), and the nest itself with the bird’s head even lower.

The nest was awkward for the bird to get into. It needed two or three tries every time it came back.

Distant view of the Wrekin, seen from a footpath just outside Lower Penn.

Field with buttercups so abundant they seemed to be the crop.

A very rural-looking view of Merry Hill Brook as it heads out through fields into the Staffordshire countryside.

Lupins, possibly descended from garden escapes, growing on the canalside edge of Fowler’s Park.

Bee almost disappearing down the flower of one of the flag irises at Fowler’s Park, eager to get at the nectar.

A stem of wild garlic at the stage where most of the petals had dropped off the flowers and the seeds were just beginning to ripen.

Comma butterfly resting on a dry canal towpath, and drinking from a very slightly damper patch of the soil.

The deeply indented trailing edge of the wings is a more distinctive mark of the species than the vaguely comma shaped patch which is confined to the underwing.

Bright yellow broom flowers crowding together on a bush at the edge of Fowler’s Park recently.

Duck and ducklings on a canal bank. The young birds feeding among the grass, the mother unconcerned as I passed by inches away.

Clematis, escaped from cultivation and well-established on a fence on the far side of the Birmingham Canal, half way down the 21 locks. It was in full flower mid-May.