More from Sunday

Click on the small image to see the bigger one, if required. Like Les I found that the flowers are fading and the diversity of the insect life is falling off. The thistles, which are a great favourite of the butterflies and bees, are all going to seed. All of the vetches are going over, with long thin brown seed pods forming. Some of the seed stages of the dandelions, willowherbs and thistles are very pretty in their own right, forming perfect globes or diaphanous webs of soft white fibres, but they don't offer much to the insect life. The scabious are still in flower, offering some relief. Most dominant were the damselflies, which were out in force.

In previous years I have taken lots of photographs of non-aquatic birds, but this year there have been far fewer to see. There are huge numbers of pigeons and lots of magpies, and a few blackbirds (wonderful birds), but there has been much less diversity to see amongs the smaller species. I don't know whether this is just because they are staying out of sight high in the trees or because they are not around in the same numbers as before.