Goosanders seem to be remaining more often for the summer on the Severn as it passes through Shropshire. This group of one male and three females were on a pebbly section of the river bank in Bridgnorth, seen here from the far shore. A black headed gull bathing in the water intrudes into the pictures.
Large clump of Jack by the hedge, growing by the overspill weir at Wightwick Lock, when they were in flower early this month.
There are many, indeed too many, Canada geese living on the lake at West Park. I don’t remember any of them producing goslings in previous years. But this week I have seen four different pairs of adults with young. These, swimming with their two goslings in the boating lake on Monday, were the first I spotted.
A second visit, one day after these pictures were taken, to see the moorhens and their chicks on the Compton Park pool. One of the parents and three of the six chicks seem to spend all their time deep in the vegetation on the water, where they can be occasionally glimpsed but hide again too fast for me to focus on them. The other parent and remaining three chicks are a little less coy, and are the ones shown here.
Wild arum (this one was growing in woodland by the Penkside footpath in Perton) and a lily I noticed in a front garden, both at a similar stage in opening, showing that they are related.
This young heron flew off from its position by the canal at Castlecroft when someone came along the towpath. It landed in the middle of a nearby field, where it stood, hunched, watchful and looking most disgruntled.
