You are right @Liriodendron, one of my favourite caterpillars which I haven't seen since my childhood, although the moths are quite common on the grassy headlands here.
A few days ago a spider (Enoplognatha ovata) set up home in one of the traps of my Saracenia. Today a wasp got caught in its web and I watched it struggling while the spider attempted to administer a fatal bite. The spider then went down into the trap, and after a few minutes the wasp appeared to be dead. The spider then came back and took its dinner down into the trap.
I've never seen a cinnabar moth around here until today. Just after I read your post @Liriodendron one flew past the conservatory. Now that's a coincidence
@Guernsey Donkey2 and @purplerallim - I don't remember seeing the caterpillar before, though I've seen the beautiful moth a few times. Those stripes apparently warn predators that the caterpillars are poisonous...
Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
Just found a bat dropping on the window sill. Looking up there's a gap in the soffit above there and a few more droppings stuck to the render right below it. Don't they know we have a bat box for that kind of thing since modern buildings like this are too tightly sealed for bats to get in? They're having to share the soffit space with the sparrows who are also ignoring the sparrow terrace nest boxes in favour of gaps in my poorly constructed roof. I will have to congratulate the cowboys who built it one day...
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
A fox, a squirrel and a mouse ran across the road in front of my car this morning. Sometimes you don’t see any mammals for ages, then three come at once.
The birds are not much in evidence at the moment, although juvenile western Sub-Alpine Warblers are enjoying flying school between my hedge and border, clucking and chukking like knocking marbles together. The young Golden Orioles are also practicing their aeronautical skills down by the river and a young buzzard is trying to establish it’s territory in mine, with the days punctuated by its mournful cries.
It’s interesting how calls differ in different parts of the country. The Golden Orioles down south, where I used to live, favoured the classic three note wolf whistle, whereas up here in the north, its a ‘La DAH de Dah’. The ear-splitting screeches are the same though!
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
That's brilliant, you're really, really lucky to have local Golden Orioles. I don't think they breed regularly in the UK any more but I do remember being woken at dawn (we were such hardened birders we slept in cars a lot in those days) 30 years ago by their beautiful calls at what was a breeding site in East Anglia. Sadly this site was abandoned decades ago. Luv Dave
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Cinnabar moth caterpillars, unless I'm mistaken...
A few days ago a spider (Enoplognatha ovata) set up home in one of the traps of my Saracenia. Today a wasp got caught in its web and I watched it struggling while the spider attempted to administer a fatal bite. The spider then went down into the trap, and after a few minutes the wasp appeared to be dead. The spider then came back and took its dinner down into the trap.
The birds are not much in evidence at the moment, although juvenile western Sub-Alpine Warblers are enjoying flying school between my hedge and border, clucking and chukking like knocking marbles together. The young Golden Orioles are also practicing their aeronautical skills down by the river and a young buzzard is trying to establish it’s territory in mine, with the days punctuated by its mournful cries.
It’s interesting how calls differ in different parts of the country. The Golden Orioles down south, where I used to live, favoured the classic three note wolf whistle, whereas up here in the north, its a ‘La DAH de Dah’. The ear-splitting screeches are the same though!
Luv Dave