A closer look - but perhaps not too close a sniff - at the riverbank brings rewards for Nature Watch photographer Ray Roberts!

I spotted a couple of mating oil beetles whilst on a walk down beside the River Seaton. These were around 30mm in length, live on grassy flowery banks and hedges and have a very complicated method of reproduction. The females lay their eggs in a hole or crevice in the hedgerow and when the larvae hatch, they swarm out over the vegetation and wait for a bee to pitch nearby. To survive the larvae attach themselves to a bee and get carried back to the bees nest where they live on honey until they become real beetles.

There were lots of marsh marigolds – Caltha palustris – in bloom on the wet marshland beside the river. The plant’s common name, kingcup, is from the Old English ‘cop’ meaning a button or stud such as the kings of England once wore. In days gone by farmers would hang marsh marigolds around their cow shed on May Day to shield them from the evil ways of witches.

Another yellow flower is the skunk cabbage – Lysichiton americanus - that grows on boggy ground near to a stream or river. It is a member of the Arum family and similar to lords and ladies but with a large, thick spadix. Brought over from America during the early 1900s as a garden flower it ‘escaped’ into the countryside in the late 1940s and in some parts of the country the plant is causing problems by blocking narrow waterways with its strong rhizomes or roots. If you find one and want to know how it got its name, just take a long, close sniff of it.

I heard a quacking sound that seemed to be getting louder when I spotted a solitary male mallard coming down the river. I don’t know if he was looking for a mate but he just swam by in the middle of the river taking no notice of me whatsoever.

There was a large group of pink flowered common comfrey – Symphytum officinalis – growing on boggy ground beside the road near the river. In fact, comfrey comes in a range of colours from white, yellow, pink and blue and a preparation was once made from the leaves to treat wounds, sores and various other ailments.

I think the prettiest sight on my walk were a couple of orange tip butterflies that were flitting to and fro across the vegetation. These are one of the first butterflies to make an appearance in spring and the males have orange tips on their forewings. Females have a dark patch, almost black, on the tips of their wings. This is the second butterfly I have seen this year after the recent peacock sighting.