Number 10

My post below mentions that I've seen nine different butterflies in the garden this year. Meet number 10, who I saw on Sunday. Later on I saw three in the garden at the same time - I've never seen more than one at any time before.

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.

Ladybirds

I don't get many ladybirds. I think I've seen three or four 7-spots and one 15-spot this year.



But back in July I was in for a surprise. I found 10 of these ugly looking things on the silver birch.

The are larvae of the Harlequin Ladybird, the much hated foreign invader. I was lucky enough to see this one shedding its skin as the pupa emerged.

A pupa that has darkened.

This one has not long emerged from its pupal stage.

They don't look like ours do they?

I moved one to the nasturtiums that were being destroyed by blackfly. Unfortunately they were too few too late.

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.

Moths

On my bike ride mentioned above I also saw quite a few of these moths. I thought I knew what they were because Lynmiranda (see blog link in my Birdwatching blog) had photos of similar moths. But I noticed they weren't the same. This is actually a Narrow Bordered Five Spot Burnet.

I spotted this moth on the (dirty) window today. Three hours later it's still there. I managed to identify it quite easily as a Small Magpie Moth.

The moth is outside - the fence, hedge, house and sky are reflections.

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.

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.

More butterflies

It's a lovely day for a change so I did a bit of gardening and was pleasantly surprised to see some butterflies drinking nectar at the marigolds. It's something I've never watched before but I could see the proboscis uncurled and placed in the flower and then the butterfly would lean forward getting down deep. Both types I saw today fed at both the African and French Marigolds.

A male Large White.

A Small Tortoiseshell - kinda looked old.

Another Tortoiseshell - this one looked much brighter.

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.

Bees

Along the north of the garden on the other side of the fence is a large privet hedge. The neighbour to the north wanted to cut it down from 15 feet because he was trying to grow fruit trees. He couldn't reach the eastern edge, and no one else is bothered, so it's a bit ragged, and flowers. And that attracts the bees. For a few days there were loads back in July all over it.

I think these two are Buff-Tailed Bumble Bees. The White-Tailed Bumble Bee is very similar, especially the workers.



Honey Bee.

I have some marigolds and one evening while checking the birch for sawfly larvae I noticed one had a dark centre. It took a while to realise that a bee was in there but it wasn't moving.

I poked it with a long pointy thing and it started to back out.

I had to keep poking it because it would just go back in again.

Eventually it made its way out but was very lethargic. It was almost as though it was drunk on nectar.

It hadn't had enough though and soon turned round and dived back in. It was still there the next morning but eventually left.

Butterflies

The most common butterflies in my garden - and I don't get many yet - are the whites and gatekeepers. Of the photos taken below the only ones I'd ever seen (i.e. noticed) before this year would be the large whites and red admiral.

Speckled Wood - best picture I could get (last year I thought this was a Marbled White)

Large Whites - these never settle.

Male Gatekeeper.

Female Gatekeeper - seen better days.

Meadow Brown - larger than the Gatekeeper, only has one white dot in the eye and never seems to open its wings.

Red Admiral - this was on the fence for well over half an hour.