Teazel plant standing at least ten feet tall in the vegetation around the pool in Compton Park. Since these pictures were taken the plant has started to bend over almost double under the combined effects of its own weight and summer winds.
Large insect, looks like a hornet. But it’s a hoverfly, imitating a hornet to protect itself, so it’s no threat.
Hornet hoverflies were first recorded in Britain in the phoney war summer of 1940. They are extending their range, but even presumably up to date websites say that they are just found in south-east England, with very occasional sightings in the south-west.
This one was feeding earlier today on the flowers of a thyme in Wolverhampton. It’s a female – the males have eyes which meet in the middle.
Pink yarrow flowers, with and without a visit by a fly with green body and red eyes.
Funnel-shaped web, littered with vegetable detritus and with those parts of insects which had been trapped by the web then found inedible by the resident spider.
Coot adult with well-grown chicks swimming on the Avon at Stratford, and on their nest in the midst of a patch of waterlilies.
Large, mainly brown butterfly which glided around before settling down on a nettle and appeared to be laying eggs. Possibly one of the variant forms of white admiral butterfly lacking the white patch on the wings.