Autumn in almost here

I've neglected my blogs recently so here's a few creatures spotted in my garden the last month. First butterflies and their caterpillars.

A Comma on the comfrey.

A comma caterpillar on the hops. I discovered I had at least two. This one is probably at the latest instar stage and I didn't see either much longer after this.

Another peacock on the buddleia, which hopefully will have many more flowers and butterflies next year.

A Painted Lady (with a honeybee). I'd never seen one before this year.

A Small Tortoishell. I always remember these from when I was a kid at the old house. The marigolds do well for me in attracting butterflies.

A Speckled Wood on the plinth. This makes nine different species spotted in my garden this year. Missing from last year are the Red Admiral and Meadow Brown.

An earlier blog mentions the large white caterpillars on the cabbage that hatched mid-to-late July. This photo was taken on 19th August and shows one pretty much fully grown, with some relatively new hatched ones.

The cabbages are pretty much gone now with just a few small caterpillars doing their best. Many caterpillars have moved on to search out other plants.

Autumn is almost here (part 2)

Some other creatures:

A Migrant Hawker Dragonfly that posed nicely for me.

A Green Bottle that I'm pleased with.

A couple of spiders.



A Buff-Tailed Bumblebee (could be a white tailed but this seems to have a bit of colour on the tail)

One evening I spotted loads of caterpillars on a young hornbeam. I identified them as Buff-tip moths. They stick together eating a leaf at a time until they are in the latest instar stage and then all split up. I counted about 50 and wondered how much damage they would do - as it happened quite a lot, but the tree still has a few leaves and buds getting ready for next year. The caterpillars have gone, some were spotted around the garden. They pupate over winter in the soil.

Here's a couple I caught shedding their skins. The hairs are probably irritating.

Butterflies and moths

The Sunday after I posted my last blog entry I noticed that a lot of the Large White caterpillars had gone, and by Monday they had all disappeared - either off to pupate or taken by birds. Since then the cabbages started to recover and I've since spotted eggs

With some ready to hatch

So I knew where to look for these on July 25th

They are still quite small

I thought I was going to spot two Large White butterflies mating today, but they turned out to be female Large and Small Whites.

The Small White flew over to the cabbages where I caught her laying an egg.

The Small White lays eggs singly and I think this is a young caterpillar - it was on the cabbages anyway.

And I'm certain this is a fully grown Small White caterpillar. I almost didn't spot it despite its size. It wasn't there the next day.

A few days ago I found this caterpillar which I'm fairly sure is of a Comma. It is on the hops, one of the preferred foods. I've seen a couple of Comma butterflies in the garden.

It's normally hidden from view, curled up and looking like bird poo, but I turned the leaf back to get the photo. I don't think it liked the sun and was on the move.

Today I saw my first Peacock butterfly in something like 40 years. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a photo. However a few weeks ago I was on a bike ride and met my daughter and family out for a walk. As we chatted the kids spotted this Peacock caterpillar.

On another bike ride I spotted a Speckled Wood butterfly - another first for me.

Back home and today I saw my first identified blue butterfly - a female Common Blue.

A couple of days ago I spotted this. I think it might be a Skipper (a kind of butterfly) but am not certain. It's hiding its antennae so I can't tell if it's a butterfly or moth.

Edit: it's a Yellow Shell Moth. Thanks to Lynmiranda for identifying it.

And finally a Common Plume moth.

Butterflies

A week ago I went for another bike ride, part of which was along the Nutbrook trail. There were loads of butterflies, which I later identified as Ringlets. It was hard to get close to them.

A few days ago I went to deadhead the nasturtiums in my garden and apart from millions of blackfly I also spotted loads of caterpillars. As they were very familiar I guessed they were Large Whites. I read that gardeners will plant nasturtiums near cabbages because the butterfly prefers them.

Ironically I had cabbages growing trying to attract the same. So Thursday morning I rehoused about a dozen, and in the evening it was obvious they liked their new home.

So that evening and Friday as well I rehoused the rest. Today I counted 31. I can find 27 in this photo.

While I was out this morning I spotted another butterfly I didn't know. It was hanging about the hops plant but the best photos I got were when it landed on my shirt. I couldn't tell exactly what the camera was pointing at so was quite pleased with the result. It's a Comma and I've read that they like to lay their eggs on hops.

Caterpillar

Yesterday evening I spotted this caterpillar on my Silver Birch. It wasn't moving and I wondered if that thing on its back was some other creature that was burrowing in or out. I didn't hold out much hope of finding out what it was - try searching for caterpillars - but there it was and confirmed by other sites. It's the caterpillar of the grey Dagger Moth, a boring looking insect that flies at night but pollinates flowers. As there's only one caterpillar I will be leaving it alone.