Wolves Wild

These were growing in a corner of St John’s churchyard.

Snails taking refuge on vegetation. There seemed to be a lot of them in the field behind Compton lock that day.

Ornamental crab apple trees in the field behind Compton lock. The flowers on the tree nearer the lock had almost completely opened; on the further tree the buds were just beginning to unfold.

The bright red “bristles” of the “brush” are the stamens, with a yellow pollen tip.

Originally a Brazilian plant, now often an exotic house plant. These two fine blooms were in the Conservatory last month.

I like the variations in the colours of the small flowers on the same plant.

The butterfly perched high on the bush, possibly because it wanted to keep well away from me.

This common but unobtrusive weed has a very short generation span, and only five chromosomes,  which makes it particularly suitable as a subject for biological research.

This sequence was taken in April, and shows a pair of coots and their chicks on the lake at West Park.

The chicks were still very young. It seemed to be the first time they had ventured onto the water.

One of the parents powers away …

and dips its head in search of prey.

The most hesitant chick is still on the nest. Others are in the water: two are clearly visible, another barely so behind twigs. There were six chicks altogether, but never close enough together to get more than three in shot at once.

Only a mother could love them (in fact both parents were feeding them).

Feeding. The white tip on the end of the chick’s beak may be its egg tooth.

The parent dives for a morsel to give to one of the chicks – the colour of its leg is visible near the bubbles.

The splash from a fresh dive for food.

Note the red eye of the parent and the texture of the feathers which normally look a matte black.

The yellow-green of the petals make the plant look like it has two different types of leaves.