Foraging was a regular pastime when dog walking in London - there is a surprising amount of easily accessible fruit to find in the parks, squares and streets of the city. Walking along the Dee Estuary the foraging opportunities are wilder but as abundant: hedgerows, fruit trees and berries growing wild along the pathways, and there are some beautiful seed heads and wild flowers to be found for flower arranging.

A selection from our dog walk along the estuary this evening:

The different birds like different berries: blackbirds and robins like apples, the tits go for the haws, blackcaps choose the elderberries, pigeons the pyracantha berries and the blackberries are very popular with almost all of them. We overheard what we think was a pheasant chomping away at an apple beneath one of the hawthorn bushes, being very noisy about it.

Not bad going for a half an hour along the estuary on a lovely sunny late summer evening. And with at least one exhausted dog at the end of it.