Wolves Wild

This year’s two cygnets at West Park with their parents. Parent birds both stamping their feed in the mud at the bottom of the lake – perhaps stirring up whatever it is they eat. Then one of the cygnets scratching its neck.

This gosling the latest greylag to harch, seen on Thursday when it looked to have hatched only a few days ago. This and the next two clips taken on a smartphone camera.

Coots feeding chicks – these may have been as much as six weeks old, and still being fed by the adults. Both parents do this feeding.

Swans and cygnets again, this time further from the shore. Unlike coot chicks, the cygnets can get their own food as soon as they are hatched. Parental care is still essential for survival, but here it is by guiding, teaching and protecting.

Whether they are on water or on land, quite often as here the pen (female) will be close by the cygnets; the cob (male) a little further away, on guard.

Azure damselfly and a large red damselfly, both resting on leaves in our garden (we do not have a pond).

Another big set of flowers spotted on my walks for exercise during lockdown, a few with visiting bees thrown in as a bonus.

This year’s West Park goslings are growing fast. here the large group of Canadas, feeding near the lake outlet.

Recent butterfly sightings. The small tortoiseshell is this year’s second generation, looking newly emerged as an adult. Moved from one plant to another every few seconds even when I was far away, and kept its wings folded together whenever it did land.

Peacock, seen a couple of weeks earlier, was very ragged. The speckled wood also looked like it might have come through some fights.

There had been no sign of black-headed gulls in West Park since the winter. presumably they had all headed off somewhere nearby more suitable for the breeding season, leaving only the lesser black backs.

At the end of May, some of the black-headeds started returning, though still only a handful.