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.

Damselflies

On the same bike trip I stopped off at Manor Floods and saw these damselflies.

A Common Blue.

I assume a female but I have no idea what.

Other insects

The first non-plant living thing I took a photo of in my garden was this Seven Spot Ladybird on a recently planted Hornbeam. It stayed around a few days but I haven't seen another one all year.

I saw these lovely looking caterpillars on my Silver Birch. When approached they arched their backs. I did a search on the internet and found out that they were in fact Sawfly Larvae and they can strip a young tree. I wasn't taking any chances, I don't know how long they'd been there but one branch was almost stripped bare. I put them on the bird table but nothing wanted them. Seems that when they arch their backs they also give off a foul smell.

A Hoverfly

Another type of Hoverfly

A Brown Hawker Dragonfly. It spent ages flying around as I vainly tried to take a photo, but then it settled on the hedge long enough.