On Sunday evening I watched a male Muntjac in the field, for well over 30 minutes. Unfortunately it was nearly dusk and my lens wouldn't focus, so only three record shots from me on that evening.
On Monday evening there was no sign of the Muntjac, but a fox did come across the field and again, because of the bad light, I only managed one poor photo...
There was also an interesting vapour trail from this aircraft..
and the resident Great Spotted Woodpecker kept me entertained whilst I was 'field watching'..
If you read my last blog post you'll know I bought home some new house mates on Saturday. Two stalks of garlic mustard holding two Orange-tip butterfly eggs on one stalk, and the second with an already hatched unidentified caterpillar. I put the stalks in water and they have thrived. 98% of the flowers have now turned to seed which is what an Orange-tip caterpillar prefers to feed on apparently.
On Sunday there was little change. Both eggs were intact. One looked darker than the other, and I presumed that was because it was near to 'hatching'.
The unidentified caterpillar on the other stalk was very active. I honestly don't know yet if this is a butterfly caterpillar or a sawfly larva. As part of my locklown loft experiment I will just note changes each day and wait and see for myself. On Sunday he was 3mm long....
On Monday I woke to find one of the Orange-tip eggs had hatched, but it wasn't the one I thought would. It was the egg that had remained bright orange, not the one that had gone dark. The tiny caterpillar had chewed its way out of the egg case. The egg case remains are so translucent and tiny that even my macro camera lens would not pick it up. I'm calling this caterpillar Leaf, as its egg was laid on a leaf rather than the other that was laid on a stem.
Hullo Leaf ….
The unidentified caterpillar on the other stalk was very active again and happily devouring the seed heads.... It was just over 5mm long in this pic...
Today there is no change. Leaf is a teeny bit bigger and is still feeding on leaves rather than seed heads. Unidentified caterpillar is still munching on a seed head and only grown a bit. The unhatched egg is dark grey in colour and I doubt it will hatch. I'm going to keep it though in case it has been parasitized and something else is going to emerge.
Watch this space and stay safe
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