July 25th – Herons are bizarre birds. Beautiful yet quite strikingly ugly; elegant in flight and when hunting yet curiously awkward when moving. They adopt the most peculiar positions and stances.
This one in Birchills on the way to work appeared to be laughing at me… Oh well.
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July 24th – Lots of waterfowl are on second clutches of the season now; a tiny minority possibly on their third.
At Bentley Bridge on the Walsall Canal this delightful clutch of ducklings, maybe a few days old, proudly watched over by mum.
A beautiful sight.
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July 24th – A sunny morning riding up the industrial, backstreets of North Walsall. In John Street, a pub with an interesting history is still thriving despite it’s secluded position.
The New Inns – or Pretty Bricks (from the tiled frontage) – is a great real ale house, and used to be a folk music venue and gay pub years ago. Now it’s a cosy, well-liked and popular real ale boozer; traditional, cosy, comfortable.
It’s well kept too, and on this sunny day the hanging baskets were spectacular.
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July 23rd – I was in Birmingham for work and was planning on catching the train home. But there was trouble with the signals and all trains I could have caught were messed up.
I decided to ride home – it was a nice evening, after all. I decided to hit the canal near Lancaster Circus, but heading out of the centre I found the new segregated cycleway up the A3 to Perry Barr. It’s absolutely brilliant. I was so enamoured, I kept on it and rode home over Kingstanding.
It’s fast, largely well thought out, has it’s own traffic signals (with repeaters at bike eye level) and was really quite busy.
Some of the routes over major junctions are a bit tortuous, but it’s far better than I’d ever have imagined.
Sad to see it ends abruptly at Perry Barr, but I suppose with the junction being remodelled there it would be folly to continue it yet.
A fine thing, very pleasing to ride.
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July 22nd – In the middle of the canal at Catshill Junction, in the midst of the algae mat, a mother proudly sits on a nest. A nest built upon driftwood flotsam trapped in the algae.
I’ve been watching her a few days. You can see trails in the surface from her partner coming to feed her, or take his shift sitting.
Safe from foxes and other land predators, this moorhen mum’s got a relatively secure nest.
It’ll be interesting to see how this develops!
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July 18th – A flower which I’m convinced has had me puzzling before is St. john’s Wort. This tidy, bushy shrub is planted ornamentally on a lot of industrial estates, and I never identify with it as being British – it seems exotic.
Also when people talk about wort I always think off plants like ragwort, or sticky wort.
Having caught the morning’s showers the whole bush glistened and shimmered. A coating of raindrops can only ever add to a plant’s appeal, after all…
Thanks to everyone on Facebook who helped me identify this one.
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July 18th – Yesterday, I found a plant that I considered may be wild carrot due to the presence of a tiny, dark flower in the centre of it’s otherwise creamy white umbrel. I wrote:
The reason I think this is wild carrot is the presence of a tiny dark flower in the centre of the head to attract insects – I’ll have another look tomorrow to verify this.
That is definitely a tiny, dark purple flower, so this plant is indeed wild carrot. Another baffling, wondrous feature you have to wonder the path towards.
This lovely wildflower was certainly keeping the overflies busy too.
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July 17th – Near Jockey Meadows on the way home, I stopped to take a call on the phone, and whilst mooching around on handsfree, I noticed this 10 spot ladybird in the adjacent hedge.
It appears to be native and not a an invasive harlequin, and yes, 10 spot ladybirds often have 12 spots apparently! There’s a similar yellowish harlequin but the pattern is markedly different and there’s no tell-tale dimple on the rear of the wing cases on this one.
I guess I must have done but I don’t recall seeing one this yellow before. A rather charming and endearing find – and the client who called me had no idea what I was doing.
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July 17th – Looking back over previous years, this prolific plant in various places has been puzzling me for ages – but I think I’ve sussed it: It’s possibly Queen Anne’s lace, or wild carrot.
This example was growing on the industrial estate where I work near Darlaston.
It looks a lot like the familiar cow parsley, but isn’t: The shape is all wrong.
The reason I think this is wild carrot is the presence of a tiny dark flower in the centre of the head to attract insects – I’ll have another look tomorrow to verify this. The plant itself is edible like normal carrots, but only when young. It has a variety of folkloric uses, including as a contraceptive, apparently.
I think I’m closer to solving this one.
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July 16th – Oh dear. Catshill Junction’s cosy spot by the narrows, previously occupied by the black and white sleepyhead was this evening occupied by a new tenant, a rather splendid tabby sporting a rather fetching collar.
A fair sized puss in good condition, someone loves that cat without doubt.
I wonder if they have a timeshare arrangement?
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