Wolves Wild

Housemartin nest clinging, as they are often found, below the guttering of a house. An adult was returning regularly with food for the young inside, but I only managed one picture of its tail poking out of the nest entrance.

Pair of swans with two cygnets standing at the end of the jetty on the River Exe at Topsham. The adult birds’ chests seem to be muddy from the sediment left on the falling tide in the estuary.

Some of a group of large fish which were swimming in the water by the edge of the River Dart upstream of Totnes. It was near high water in the upper reach of the tidal part of the estuary. So I am not sure whether the fish were a marine or a fresh water species.

Reed warblers are easier to hear than to see. These were young birds showing themselves as they hunted for insects in the vegetation beside a quiet stretch of the Exeter Canal.

Less tall than the common evening primrose, the fragrant evening primrose also has a stronger preference to sandy soils. So it was right at home on the Maer Local Nature Reserve, Exmouth, a patch of dunes now separated from the beach by the road running along the sea front.

Scarce chaser male resting on a broken reed at the edge of the Exeter Canal. This species of dragonfly is indeed scarce, and present only in southern counties. At first glance it looks very like the much more common broad-bodied chaser. I would have thought it was one of those if I had not been tipped off.