The five ducklings, this years first set on the Compton to Wughtwick section of the canal, which had lost both parents at less than a week old. Here they were about six or seven weeks, still together, and still looking well, their infant down now pretty much replaced by ordinary feathers.
Large red damselfly, resting on a garden table. It was undisturbed when I came near enough to get these close-up shots.
The West Park waterfowl population is dominated by Canada geese, which outnumber the combined presence of greylags, swans and the different species of ducks. Greylags swans and coots produce at least one set of young each year. Mallards likewise in most years. I’ve been on the look out fairly regularly for the past decade, and less systematically for a long time before that. During that time, I don’t remember seeing a single Canada goose gosling. Here a pair of adults which, this year, have produced ten – there’s also a second, smaller, clutch to be featured in a future post.
Broom seen back when it was in bloom, a mass of yellow flowers almost covering the bush.
The West Park cygnets swimming and feeding by the shore of the boating lake early one morning. All six of the brood still present, though never all in the same photo. All seemed to be thriving.
Lone grey spotted amanita growing on the lawn of a front garden. The mushrooms appear in the same area every year, at an ever earlier date.
I first noticed them in August of 2013. In subsequent years, July and then June. This one was in mid-May.