Wolves Wild

A coot chick on West Park lake, calling loudly, trying to attract the attention of one of its parents. For once, the trick wasn’t working.

The colours are so bright and contrasty that this scarlet tiger moth could almost be taken for a butterfly from some tropical rainforest, rather than a European day-flying moth.

A Canada goose from the West Park flock stands on one foot on a narrow fallen log, twisting its neck so that its beak probes the feathers at the base of one if its wings as it preens.

Flowers on an elder growing right by the boardwalk across the Compton Park pond. Those flowers which opened earlies had already moved on, and the first stages of the formation of elderberries can be seen.

When the pool and wetland area in Compton Park was first created, the mix of vegetation planted still left plenty of open water. Among the other species attracted in these early years were lots of different types of damselflies and dragonflies, including these common blue damselflies.

Quite rapidly, the vegetation took over, so that in recent years there was very little visible open water at all. Mallards and moorhens stopped nesting there. Fewer and fewer damselflies and dragonflies, representing fewer and fewer species, put in an appearance.

Finally, some effort has been put into managing the pond. An area of open water has been recreated. Will it have been enough to attract back some of the missing insects?

Yellow flag iris flowers on the pond at Compton Park. The bee in the first picture was emerging backwards from the flower.